Sunday Times
“We want to perch [SA versus India] … to compete [with] and rival the Ashes.” - Chris Nenzani, CSA president
TELFORD VICE in Port Elizabeth
NOT for the first time and probably not the last, South Africa’s suits are cosying up to India’s. Well they might: kissing the ring of international cricket’s godfathers is key anywhere the game is played.
The since undone Big Three were misnamed. They were the Big One — India — and the Medium Two — England and Australia. South Africa are among the bigger Small Seven, but small nonetheless.
So there are reasons to be cheerful that, in the 10 months preceding the first week in April, South Africa will have played each of the Big Three.
Profile doesn’t get higher than that, and Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) coffers will need expansion zips to cope with the revenue earned from hosting India and Australia.
Then what?
The next blip on South Africa’s radar is three tests in Sri Lanka in August followed by three one-day internationals and a T20 at home against Zimbabwe — yes, them: the two-day/night test wonders — in October.
Next come full home series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka between December 2018 and March 2019.
We might have a T20 Global League (T20GL) in November and December, but who knows?
As the cool kids say, meh. The pretence of taking seriously teams like Zimbabwe and, away from home, Sri Lanka is among the heavier crosses cricket reporters have to bear.
But it’s a toothpick compared to the railway sleeper that putting up with lightweight teams must be for CSA. Hence them reaching out to the Big One on a trip to India in November.
“It’s an ongoing project, an ongoing engagement,” CSA president Chris Nenzani said during a press briefing in Port Elizabeth this week. “And unfortunately we hold different views about the relationship between entities.
“Because to us it’s not a matter of individuals but a matter of organisation to organisation. But I think they put a high premium on the individuals in the organisation in terms of how they deal with you.”
CSA’s former chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, used to identify people he didn’t like not by name but as “individuals”.
How funny, then, that the “individuals” Nenzani referred to must include Lorgat, whose removal from the equation in the throes of the fallout from the floundered first edition of the T20GL will have smoothed the Indians’ brows.
Like many, they couldn’t stand Lorgat. Not least because he showed them, during his tenure as International Cricket Council chief executive, that they weren’t the only bullies in the playground.
No Lorgat doesn’t mean no problem for CSA in their dealings with the barrel of bilious bumptiousness that is the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
But, as Nenzani said, “There are historical ties between these countries, between these cricketing entities. And also there’s value in terms of cricket and in terms of revenues.
“Therefore it’s a matter of necessity that we are always in good standing between the two countries.
“Remember that they are coming here [next week] and it’s a huge tour. There’s a huge narrative you can make out of that.”
Big enough, Nenzani argued, for future series between South Africa and India to hold their own with cricket’s grandest contest.
“We want to perch it not necessarily in the same way as the Ashes, but maybe to compete [with] and rival the Ashes.”
Really? No. The Ashes is its own animal, untamable even by India’s ambition.
But factor in the arrogance of who and what Nenzani and CSA are dealing with, and suddenly being part of even a cheap imitation may be an offer too good to refuse.
Comments
No comments yet. Start the conversation.