Inspiration, warnings for SA aspirants as domestic season looms

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

THOSE who will shoot at the moon of playing for SA when the domestic season starts this week will be inspired and forewarned by the varying experiences of Dane Piedt, Rilee Rossouw, Mthokozisi Shezi and Beuran Hendricks.

Piedt took a wicket with his first ball in test cricket, a delivery that lightninged left through the air, ragged right off the pitch, and smacked a ponderous Mark Vermeulen bang in front of his stumps at Harare Sports Club last month.

Simon Harmer would have met the moment with mixed feelings. He and Piedt, in the colours of the Warriors and the Cobras, fought hard for a single place in the test squad last season.

“When you make your debut you want to make an impact to prove to yourself and everybody else that you’re good enough; that you belong at that level,” Harmer said. Piedt did that, and in style.

Another 293 balls later, he had a match haul of 8/152. His future is far from assured, but he has made a fine start to his test career and put an end, at least for now, to the debate over whether he or Harmer is the better choice for SA.

Also last month in Zimbabwe, Rossouw was run out off the first ball he faced in a one-day international and edged the second to slip. Then he made a telling 36 and even took a wicket in his redemption song.

Shezi made his ODI debut alongside Rossouw and bowled six shining overs for eight runs and a wicket. But how many mentions does he win when South Africans talk about who might be in their preferred World Cup squad next year?

Hendricks breezed onto the T20 international stage in March with the self-assured confidence of a man who had been there for a season or three. But he will spend at least the first half of what promises to be a bleak summer recovering from a stress fracture of the lower back.

The kicker in the cautionary tale of the brothers Piedt, Rossouw, Shezi and Hendricks is that they were the only players to make their debuts for SA last season.

So, the system works. But does it work too well? Are good players left in the limbo of domestic cricket?

“It certainly works,” Harmer said. “Players are making their debut for the No. 1 team in the world, and with their high performance centre Cricket SA are making sure we are all monitored every step of the way.”

And, Harmer did not need to say, there are only 11 places available in any team. Conversely, cricket is not about individuals.

“The focus should be on the team, and I really want the Warriors a trophy this season,” Harmer said. “It’s been pretty dry for us.”

The only time the Warriors have known that winning feeling is in 2009-10, when they were SA’s one-day and T20 champions.

The Cobras, by contrast, are the most successful side of the franchise era with 10 won or shared titles across all formats.

That trend looks likely to continue next season, although an influx of quality players in KwaZulu-Natal could tilt the scales. Ryan McLaren and Imran Tahir have moved there from the Knights and the Lions, while Thandi Tshabalala, whose last franchise match was for the Knights in February, 2011, has also resurfaced in Durban.

Shezi has migrated to the Cape from KZN, and Dean Elgar has forsaken Bloemfontein for Centurion.

Some of them will be in action on Thursday, when the season starts with first-class matches between the Knights and the Warriors in Bloemfontein and between the Lions and the Titans at the Wanderers.