Members End: Silly Suits, Soweto and Steve Rixon

Sunday Times - February 2, 2014

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Funny how the cricket is draining out of everything the Proteas do these days. During India’s tour, the attention was on the phony war being fought by administrators with briefcases at five paces. Now, what with the game’s attempts to commit cricketcide - the restructuring proposals being discussed by the board of the International Cricket Council - the spotlight is again on the suits despite Australia’s arrival in SA this week. Sad.

If you go down to the woods today, you’re in for a big surprise. Actually, not the woods and not today, but Sowetans will be surprised to find Australians in their midst soon. Members of the Aussie squad plan to visit Life College Siyabonga to, in the words of Cricket Australia (CA) “learn more about the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela”, and “draw attention to the poor state of the school’s sports facilities with the hope that they can encourage others in the community to install a field and cricket pitch at the the school”. Good on ’em. And embarrassing for South Africans - for a day there will be more foreign international players in one township than Proteas in all SA’s townships combined.

Not that all is well in CA’s backyard. Steve Rixon, freshly fired as Australia’s assistant coach, has let fly at his former employers: “I have no problems with the coaching staff ... I can’t quite say that about CA.” Eh? “I’m not getting into a slinging match.” Yeah, right - wicketkeepers couldn’t shut the hell up if they tried. “I have very little respect for the organisation, so I think we better just leave it there.” OK ... “I don’t like a lot of things they do; they interfere with a lot of the cricket decisions over the period of time and I don’t necessarily agree with that.”