There was scepticism about the ability of Mark Boucher and Graeme Smith to instil the sort of bloody-minded determination and resilience in the national team which characterised their own careers. And quite rightly. You can’t instil that stuff in anyone. You can hope for it, encourage it, but you can’t make it happen. But those […]
Although we should all be concentrating our efforts on staying healthy and preventing the spread of the virus, there really isn’t much the vast majority of us can do other than wash our hands and stay at home as much as possible. As a moody, unsociable young teenager with acne, I did that all the time. […]
Phil Leeds is a name most of you will never have heard of unless you know another Phil Leeds – not the one playing for Wales in the Over-50s World Cup currently taking place in and around Cape Town. He is devoted to cricket and has been playing all his life, although he and his […]
It’s been a busy international summer which has meant a necessary hiatus in my weekly column as I concentrate on commentary duties and the re-commissioned Tour Diary for SuperSport.com which, hopefully, some of you have enjoyed reading. But with just four games remaining of Australia’s brief tour, it’s time to return. While the men’s team bounced […]
I was invited to preview the Newlands Test Match with Michael Atherton from a helicopter. What an amazing experience. I live in Cape Town but have never done this before and Athers has become a great friend over the years. He wasn’t at the start of my career when I was desperate for an interview […]
Rarely has anything seemed more pre-ordained in South Africa’s post-isolation history than Kepler Wessels and Allan Donald earning themselves a place on the Lord’s Honours Board during the 1994 tour of England. The captain chiselled his way to 105 with a determination bordering on obsessive while Donald, by then a Warwickshire veteran, claimed 5-74 as […]
The time for anger and acrimony has passed, for now, to be replaced by a more positive energy with tinges of pity for those who cannot accept the new reality in South African cricket. The new Director of Cricket and his coaching staff have it all to prove but, whomever they had been, a fresh […]
It is no coincidence that the announcement of Graeme Smith’s temporary and short-term appointment as Director of Cricket in South Africa was made by interim chief executive Jacques Faul rather than the defunct president, Chris Nenzani. I say ‘Director of Cricket in South Africa’ rather than CSA’s Director of Cricket because, although Smith may be […]
There were many interesting aspects of CSA president Chris Nenzani’s press conference on Saturday, not least his refusal to apologise for the humiliating judgement handed down by Advocate Ginsburg SC in the case against the Western Province Cricket Association. “We need to get it right the next time we exercise our ‘step-in’ rights,” Nenzani said. […]
The revocation of five journalists accreditations last weekend was a horrible embarrassment for Cricket South Africa – they had no idea of the international outrage it would cause – but it was also a great shame that it distracted attention from the two, far more serious issues. Good governance and the England tour are far […]
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