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Showing posts from December, 2019

Watch: David Miller scores the fastest T20 international hundred

In the second of out feel good series. We look back on David Miller scoring a 35-ball hundred against Bangladesh. A look back on better times.

South Africa extend lead to 300 in action-packed first session

Rassie van der Dussen and nightwatchman Anrich Nortje put a stop to any thoughts England had of a quick morning session with a dogged half-century partnership which  helped lift South Africa to 197/7, and the lead to over 300. The lead, which already appears insurmountable will likely balloon past 350 in the next session with the mood and form which Quinton de Kock is in. He is currently at the crease with Vernon Philander. de Kock has already taken a liking to Jofra Archer's pace bowling dispatching him for three sixes and a four. The English will be hoping for a miracle on a ground which  has never seen 300 chased, and has only seen 200 scored by the side batting last once in  the last 10 years.

New players, new coaches, same problems

For all the talk of the changes which were being introduced to the South African cricket team, Day One of the domestic summer revealed the same problems. Joe Root won the toss, and inexplicably decided to bowl first on a deck which has a reputation for being incredibly up and down towards the end of the game. When you opt to bat last in Centurion, you really do basically have to roll the opposing team, and set yourself up to either bat only once, or only chase like 100 to win on the final day. With South Africa already on 278/9, chances are pretty high that this will not be a situation where England will only bat once. From that perspective, you could argue that honours were even on day on. Add in that England won the toss, and you could say that South Africa won the day. With that said, however, it did seem like much of the same problems remained. South Africa, who it must be remembered are in the middle of a five-game losing streak, showed many of the same batting frailties which

SUSPENSION OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF CRICKET SOUTH AFRICA MR THABANG MORO

Dear Stakeholders SUSPENSION OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF CRICKET SOUTH AFRICA MR THABANG MOROE The Board of Directors of Cricket South Africa has taken a decision to put the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Thabang Moroe, on precautionary suspension with pay, effective 06 December 2019, on allegations of misconduct, pending further investigations. The decision to place Mr Thabang Moroe on precautionary suspension follows from the reports received by the Social and Ethics Committee and the Audit and Risk Committee of the Board related to possible failure of controls in the organisation. During the course of Mr. Thabang Moroe’s precautionary suspension, a forensic audit of critical aspects of the business and the conduct of management related to such aspects shall be conducted by an independent forensic team. In this regard, we urge all our stakeholder including sponsors, members of staff, players, volunteers and cricket fans to allow this process to unfold and we will provide

Another day, another headline at embattled Cricket South Africa

Today is Thursday. The fourth day of the week, fifth if you observe the Sabbath. That intro carries no meaning other than to clarify that we are deep into the work week, and we are yet to have a day where Cricket South Africa was not marred in some sort of controversy. This time, the independent board member, Iqbal Khan, a board member since 2012 tendered his resignation. This was due to a myriad of reason which had concerned Khan, these issues included CSA's recent attempted purge of media members.  The other issues of concern for Khan were: - Moroe's blaming communications head Thami Mthembu for miscommunication or non-effective communication with the media when it was Thabang Moroe who was ultimately responsible for such communication; - CSA not paying the SA Cricketer’s Association (Saca) a contractual amount in terms of a key      stakeholder contract and the blame therefore was placed with the three suspended officials (COO Naasei Appiah, sales and sponsorship

SACA's response to CSA's media blacklistings

“It’s a sorry state of affairs when attempts are made to silence respected journalists for writing about the ongoing problems in the game,” said SACA chief executive, Tony Irish.  “This is not however dissimilar to what SACA has had to endure over the last nine months, during which we have been barred from CSA sub-committees, denied access to critical information necessary for us to represent the players and had our agreements breached with impunity.” At SACA’s annual general meeting of players in November it was specifically mandated by the players to re-affirm its concerns relating to the financial position, the domestic restructure, the CSA/SACA relationship, the Proteas (men) team structures, the financial aspects of the MSL and CSA’s refusal to engage SACA to resolve these issues.  In response to SACA letters taking these up, CSA has however persisted in its refusal to address any of the concerns and instead has stated that they are ‘sub-judice’ under the current High Court appl

Norman Arendse's open letter to South African cricket

‘Dear cricket-loving fraternity, ‘It is painful to pen this letter. However, there is just too much at stake to permit our great sport of cricket to fall any further. Silence would be much more painful. Therefore, I write this open letter of appeal to our cricket family members, the CSA board, the CSA members’ council and the paid CSA administrators to act before it is too late,” writes Arendse. ‘I suspect, however, that the horse has bolted, and that we are beyond the precipice, and into the abyss. ‘As a former CSA president, and until just over a year ago, the CSA lead independent director, I have the utmost respect for prescribed procedures and protocols to be followed when differences arise within the cricket family. ‘It appears, however, that for several reasons that have manifested publicly, the family differences cannot and will not be resolved through the prescribed route. ‘What prompts me to say this is not sourced from any insider knowledge or some whistle-blo

2019 in review: CSA's annus horribilis

Cricket South Africa has a lot of problems. It has gotten to the stage where they probably have more problems than they have positives. This year, for the first time, the Proteas lost to a subcontinental team at home. Not only did they lose, they got whitewashed by a Sri Lankan team which was without their two best batsmen. This disastrous home summer was then followed by a disastrous World Cup where South Africa went a month without a win and managed to lose every single must-win game they had that tournament. On top of all that, they then had a PR nightmare when it was revealed that AB de Villiers had had a literal last minute change of heart and wanted to go to the World Cup. In whose stead we can not say. Finally, South Africa went to India and outside of the first innings with the bat, where they scored over 400, they were basically pummelled from pillar to post. As a rule, with very little exception, a team needs 20 wickets to think about winning a Test. South Africa didn't