by Trevor Chesterfield
If reading between the lines of the new deal between South Africa's players and their board, anyone thinking these days of signing a Kolpak deal with an English county might be asked about his views of loyalty to flag and country.
It's a little different, you gather, from the previous option. This was, despite having talent you are told by the selectors that as you don't fit into their plans (or the team's management) – long-term or even the short variety – you have no future in the game in the country. In other words 'get lost – we really don't want you'.
How this is likely to change with a new national selection panel now headed by Joubert Strydom, is a matter for conjecture. A respected former captain of a successful Free State side of the 1980s as well as Hansie Cronje's first provincial captain, Strydom, who also captained Northern Transvaal (later Northerns) in the early 1990s, comes from a family rich in cricket history (as well as other peripheral sports).
Then again, if you have a quality man as Johan Volsteedt as your coach at your alma mater, Grey College in Bloemfontein, it also helps. It was Volsteedt who also had a hand in shaping the playing careers of Kepler Wessels as well as Cronje and more recently Boeta Dippenaar.
Because of his family background, Strydom's cricket culture, as you would find in cities such as Bloemfontein, runs deeper than most Afrikaans-speaking youngsters. Because of this he can so easily identify with the depth the struggle Afrikaners had to establish the game during the years when an English-speaking elite dominated.
Yet in this struggle, as with the growth of the modern game and its 21st Century image, the identity factor needs certain examination. Serious questions need to be asked also of South Africa's administrators and the role they plan to play in the transformation cause. Is it about revolution or evolution?
Is this why also there are about thirty or so South Africans playing within the English county as well as Irish and Scottish systems? And this is not counting those in the various leagues, or recently retired because they feel there is little to no chance of them being selected, if talented and good enough, from the system. There is a paradox here, but I shall return to that conundrum later.
Marginalisation of players
Now the new president of Cricket South Africa, Norman Arendse, a Cape Town advocate, in his acceptance address at last week's annual meeting, made great play on the historical past of the game and its former English roots. Then what followed was the feeling, and this is all it is, that Mr Arendse was quiet happy that the game now had fewer players, or administrators, who were English-speaking.
In fact, there was this impression in the late 1990s and early into the new century that there are those in Cricket South Africa who would quite happily see the demise of English schools cricket or those coming from similar backgrounds.
It was 'find a career elsewhere' syndrome with the sort of sophistry you can expect from administrators who having already happily screwed up the careers of twenty or more top players were looking for other victims. Now those in charge of affairs might even wonder why players are migrating to other countries to follow a career and maybe win a Test, or at even a limited overs cap.
If you do a rough count of the number of wicketkeepers who were born in South Africa , or have some form of umbilical links with South Africa, and have moved successfully on elsewhere, there is the impression that as with Kevin Pietersen apart, Cricket South Africa were quite happy to allow their talent to pack their tepee and move on..
Apart from totally crass provincial selection policies, and this involves more than several cases in point, the national administration doesn't seem to particularly worry about the long-term and dwindling talent pool. After all, how many new faces are there in the emergent squad Kepler Wessels took with him to Australia? They may have won the tournament, but apart from about four players, the remainder are not part of the mainstream Test squad.
Cape Cobra's JP Duminy has sat on the periphery for several years and now that Vaughan van Jaarsveld has opted for a Kolpak deal, he gets a nod.
Not that South Africa's media are critical of the way administrators, or provincial selectors, have handled touchy issues. Apart from a few, the media has been decidedly mute when it comes to decisions by players to immigrate or seek Kolpak contracts. They seem to focus more on self-indulgent matters with their narcissistic views of affairs than about the game and the genuine long-term affects. They have, to a point allowed a foreign element to write what the South Africa media need to present.
This is also noticeable with some websites where certain British-based writers act as though they are deep in the know of South African affairs and are on intimate terms with the players. There's also a certain jingoistic attitude that has crept into their on-line chatter that is unmistakeably cliquish in presentation and a turn off when trying to follow commentary of the Tests and slogs.
Marshmallow event
A glance at the South African Twenty/20 squad for this version of yet another World Cup event, contains Roger Telemachus. How much longer are the national selectors going to keep this guy in the mix? Sure it's a marshmallow event, but he's become such a washy bowler that there is the impression he's making up the numbers.
And Neil McKenzie's recall to national arms after so long in the wilderness suggests its some form of compensation for A: deciding not to opt for a Kolpak contract; B: there is no one else. Having told players such as Martin van Jaarsveld, that he didn't have a future; ditto Hylton Ackerman, Jacques Rudolph and Dale Benksnestein. Ryan McLaren, now with Kent is about to join this collection of pale males, while Riki Wessels (that's the 21-year-old son of Kepler Wessels), is playing for Northamptonshire. But, keeping a close eye on the South African media, nary has a query been asked of Cricket South Africa about the continued talent drain.
While Cricket South Africa's chief executive Gerald Majola complained recently about Vaughan van Jaarsveld (no relation to Martin) taking up the Kolpak option, nothing was said about classy wicketkeeper Kruger van Wyk's immigration a year ago to New Zealand in search of international honours. Now joining him is his close friend Johann Myburgh, Titans franchise player who feels New Zealand offers him a better opportunity to achieve some form of international recognition.
Naturally the Titans franchise chief Andy O'Connor couldn't care less. From reports, he didn't consult either Van Wyk or Myburgh. But as O'Connor is East Rand-based it doesn't say too much for the future of the franchise long-term goals of keeping quality players. The question of whether, with Myburgh, we have another Kevin Pietersen situation developing also looms.
But look at it this way, in the case of Van Wyk, the more wicketkeepers who quit for foreign contracts with migration in mind, the longer it allows Thami Tsolekile to retain his national squad place. When he made his Test debut in India at Kanpur and a week later Kolkata, his flawed performances were a decided liability to the side.
Apart from Van Wyk there is Nic Pothas (Hampshire) and Gerad Brophy (Yorkshire ) along with Wessels. Brophy, from Welkom joined the English county from Ireland by way of Free State.
It was interesting that Arendse, is his acceptance address didn't mention once concerns about a talent drain. Is this because none of the formerly disadvantaged have been affected? Or in fact that it helps them as it lessens the talent pool? Had someone such as Ashwell Prince or Herchelle Gibbs opted for a Kolpak contract and not made themselves available for South Africa, it would be interesting to hear the howls of protest and accusations as well as heated comments emanating from such a personal decision.
Let us then, examine, Arendse's statement and see what lies ahead for Cricket South Africa over the next year.
Sport of winners
'I see my role as president (of CSA) as being there to lead the team ethos of Cricket South Africa as set out in its vision: namely to make South African cricket a truly national sport of winners.
'There are two key elements to this vision:
'Firstly, to make cricket accessible and to be supported by the majority of South Africans. This is why we will continue to have development and transformation as the driving forces behind everything we do.
And secondly, to make cricket a sport of winners we have to pursue excellence at all times. And to achieve excellence, we have to build capacity across all levels of cricket.
'It is important that we remain constantly aware that our sport is played in the context of a democratic South Africa and that we are a nation of diverse peoples and cultures. This does not mean that we don't share the same goal; it simply means that we must use our diversity as our strength because this makes us different from other nations.'
What he says in a sense is that it is about developing an identity through the environs of the game as an entity, which is important as Law 1 is clear enough in that it is about players; not race, creed, colour or religion.
Yet, within a generation, what we could also see is a South African team without a white player as the West Indian process take over. It could be the reason why there is muted CSA comment about the number of white players lost to the system. It seems to be the aim of those in control, to marginalise not only a growing English minority. It is a real danger and allows for the historical background as well as legacy to be lost.
(Born and educated in New Zealand, Trevor Chesterfield began his career in journalism on April 18, 1955 and is the author of four cricket books. He lived and worked in South Africa for 32 years, based mainly in Pretoria and Centurion. He is now domiciled in Sri Lanka where he lives with his Ceylon-born wife).
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