CricketZA

Ottis Gibson wants to continue, Faf du Plessis wants Ottis Gibson to continue, CSA might even want Ottis Gibson to continue, but does that mean that Gibson should indeed continue? To call the last two years of South African cricket a roller-coaster would be an understatement. For a while the boy have shamed us with embarrassing world cup performances, and back to back whitewashes at the hands of Sri Lanka of all countries, they have shown glimpses of genuinely good and exciting cricket. It is easy to forget, such is the fickle nature of fandom, but the Proteas have had sustained moments of genuine success over the last two years. They beat India, who were the world #1 side, at home with a Test to spare. They beat Australia at home for the first time in 47 years. They whitewashed Pakistan at home in the Tests. With the white ball, the picture is even prettier. South Africa went into the world cup having lost only one ODI series under Gibson. That is a seriously impressive record. ...

Hashim Amla recorded his first ever golden duck in Test cricket history yesterday. In isolation, this is not in and of itself a catastrophe. But it may be indicative of a great of the game in terminal, almost irreparable decline. Hashim Amla, great as he may be, has not averaged over 50 in a calendar year since 2014. To be fair, this does include two years, in 2016 and 2017 where he averaged 48.6 and 47.4 respectively. Still, given the fact that Hash has averaged around 26 in the last 14 months, it is hard to argue that the bell isn't beginning to ring ever louder. In 21 away Tests since 2014, Amla averages 28 at a strike rate of 38. The nadir of his away experiences were reached when Amla, once the Foreign King of Asian conditions averaged 10 in Sri Lanka. Ten. Deca. So Amla has been playing pretty far below par away from home for the last five years. But the problems have begun to extend home. In 12 tests at home, since the turn of 2018, Amla averages 29.85. He has not hit a ...

In a quiet court in Pretoria on a cloudy Friday afternoon in Pretoria, Gulam Bodi became the first South African athlete in history to receive a criminal conviction for match-fixing. He has pled guilty to all eight charges brought against him, and to quote him, "The accused pleads to the mercy of the courts. He fully understands the seriousness of his offences and begs the state for forgiveness", was the statement read out in court. Sentencing has not yet been brought down. Bodi, along with Ethy Mbhalati , Thami Tsolekile, Jean Symes, Alviro Petersen, Lonwabo Tsotosbe, and Pume Matshikwe were all suspended from South African cricket operations, following allegations of match fixing during the 2015 RAM Slam T20, with Bodi accused of having been the link between the match-fixers and pros.

Due to the ever expanding international fixture list, it is becoming more and more difficult to squeeze full tours in, so international teams have taken to completing tours in pieces. Not the worst idea, but it does mean we are left with things like seemingly arbitrary one-week tours, over three games, which have no discernible benefit. But, this is the lead up to a World Cup year after all, and with that comes a few questions that need to be answered before the big thing actually happens. Is Aiden Markram our answer at #4?  The retirement of AB de Vlliers has created a power vacuum of sorts in the national team. Now shorn of the value of one of the five greatest ODI players of all time as well as unarguably the most destructive, possibly of all time, but most definitely in his era, the team has spluttered along a bit at the death. It must be said,that AB was present for when India completely ran us over at home, 5-1, in the ODIs earlier this year, with only our Pink ODI kit...

Team : Tshwane Spartans Protea Marquee: AB de VIlliers International Marquee: Eoin Morgan Coach: Mark Boucher Cool Factor : A Squad :  AB de Villiers, Eoin Morgan*, Lungi Ngidi, Robbie Frylinck, Jeewan Mendis*, Theunis de Bruyn, Rory Kleinveldt, Sean Williams*, Gihahn Cloete, Lutho Sipamla, Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Andrew Birch, Sikander Raza, Shaun von Berg, Eldred Hawken. The good people of Centurion and Pretoria will probably be the most disappointed in the entire country to have the new-look Mzansi Super League. In the good old days of the Ram Slam T20, they had as firm a vice grip on the T20 tournament as any team in the history of T20 tournaments. They had won three in a row heading into this uncertain season, an uncertainty to the tune of Cricket South Africa technically not actually having an official T20 competition four weeks ago. As one would expect in a tournament where the players were selected via a draft, they have lost a lot of the talent which led th...

Paarl Rocks Home ground: Boland Park Home City: Paarl Cool factor: B- Established: Like one day ago Squad: Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dane Paterson, Aiden Markram, Mangaliso Mosehle, Bjorn Fortuin, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Grant Thomson, Paul Stirling, Tshepo Moreki, Henry Davids, Cameron Delport, Eathan Bosch, Patrick Kruger, Kerwin Mungroo First things first: It should really be noted that Paarl Rocks is quite possibly the worst name in the history of cricket franchises. Yes, even worse than Rising Pune Super Giants, which was literally only so named as a marketing ploy for its owners, RP-Sanjiv Goenka group, aka RPSG. But no, the team is not named Paarl Rocks as an ode to the idea that Paarl is a nice place to be. Paarl sleeps, yes. Paarl makes wine, yes. But Paarl most definitely does not rock. It is in fact so named after the Paarl Rock,  a rock- climbing mecca of some sort for rock climbers. Apparently on a clear day, one can see Table Mountain from Pa...

In the history of South African cricket, no spinner has taken more One Day International wickets than Imran Tahir. It isn't particularly close to be honest. He has 149 wickets, no other spinner has 100. He is also currently the leading T20 international wicket-taker in South African history. In other words, in international cricket, he's our greatest ever white ball spinner. He is also, with the ball at least, the most likely reason we will leave England with a world cup, or at the very least our pride intact. See for a bowler to lead a team to a world cup, they need to commit the perfect crime. If 15 years of watching CSI has taught me nothing else, its that to commit the perfect crime, one needs three things. Motive, means and opportunity. Motive. That's the want to. The desire to achieve something improbable. Tahir doesn't just just have the motive to win a world cup. He has the motive to take tail-end wickets against Zimbabwe in a meaningless ODI. The man plays...