South Africa Watch

For discussion of any non-Zimbabwean cricket.
sloandog
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Re: South Africa Watch

Post by sloandog »

Personally I’m quite happy with the squads which have been selected. However there’s some additions which, again, leave me scratching my lid..

Hendricks is scarily over rated. People around SA cricketing circles seem to have this perception that he clicks in at 90mph regularly and can swing the ball both ways, when really, he’s been in and around 82-83mph for the past 4 years or so. He’ll get panned in the test series.

Andile is not a test cricketer, simple. He’s done some fantastic things with the white ball for SA since his inception into the national side but I really don’t understand how he can get selected over a talent like Wiaan Mulder. Quotas are a big thing (as we know all too well) in SA. I’m not doubting his talent and his desire to succeed but right now, at this stage in his career, he’s not quick enough with the ball to be successful in test cricket.

Picking Malan, Rudi Second and Rassie Van Der Dussen made me smile a lot, because it shows a more rounded basis for selection based on meritocracy, opposed you filling the quotas. These three have been so successful over the last few seasons I’ve always wondered how they keep getting omitted. When I saw Munsammy (spelling) and Piedt picked for India I cringed terribly, as they looked, were and are bang average. These three batters at least bring some solidity with the bat as well as over 100 FC games each. Having young Hamza in there, too, is a good thing. Markram looks to be fit again and and back in the frame, which is always a good thing. Glad they’ve finally dropped De Bruyn.

Finally, the fact that SA are now (finally!!!!!) picking Dwayne Pretorius is great news. I really rate this guy and think he could provide balance with the ball and bat. The fact that the selectors are also throwing around the names of Siboto, Nandre Burger (sharp!), Gerald Coetzee, Kyle Verreynne and young Mnyake suggests to me they’re starting to realise that they need to begin blooding younger players. Kids like Matt Briezkee, Raynard Van Tonder, Jannamen Malan etc must be selected in the LOI squad, they’re too good to be ignored.

And finally, can we all just remember the name...Corbin Bosch!? What a talent he’s going to be/is! Pace pace pace

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jaybro
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Re: South Africa Watch

Post by jaybro »

sloandog wrote:
Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:28 am

Andile is not a test cricketer, simple. He’s done some fantastic things with the white ball for SA since his inception into the national side but I really don’t understand how he can get selected over a talent like Wiaan Mulder.
Mulder is injured Sloan, otherwise I reckon he would have been there
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jaybro
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Re: South Africa Watch

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Reading this article it would seem Smith & Boucher are more interested in picking the best side and not a quota side, which I totally agree with
Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher reiterated that they understand what South African cricket needs regarding transformation, but admitted that they will seek more clarity regarding the finer details of the expected policies, writes Naeemah Benjamin.

Interim Director of Cricket Graeme Smith announced Mark Boucher as the Team Director of the Proteas at a Media briefing in Cape Town on Saturday.

The former Proteas wicketkeeper batsman is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s finest, but is he the right man to take the Proteas forward?

Only time will tell.

What I can say is, the face of South African cricket certainly does look much stronger than it did a few weeks back and England will surely be wary of a reaction from a wounded Proteas side.

One of my major concerns was how the new leadership group would handle the sensitive topic of transformation.

Both Smith and Boucher gave a careful answer when asked about how they would handle the policies expected regarding the topic.

“Transformation is there, I’ve been involved with it when I was playing cricket, and now as a coach as well,” said Boucher.

“To be honest with you, I still have to find out exactly what the policies are – Graeme is probably going to have to look after that space as well, but I understand what our country needs.

“I understand we need the guys to come through but within reason as well, I’m not going to be a coach to throw a guy into a viper’s nest if he’s struggling a bit, I’d like to look after that space and try to help him rebuild his confidence and get him back onto the field.

“It’s all about me looking after the players. I understand that transformation needs to take place, but we want to look after the players as well and ultimately give them the best chance to perform.”


I know there are many like me, who are eager to see what work will go into making our domestic circuit great again.

Transformation is an important part of our cricket and I personally feel more needs to be done and more players need to be produced and looked after.

Smith emphasised this with his comments when he highlighted that more work needs to be done at the lower tiers of cricket.

“I’m very aware of transformation. I’ve captained the country for 11 years and it was a big part of the stuff I had to focus on, deal with and be aware of,” said Smith.

“So that’s not different now. I need to obviously get in and understand the policies that are in place, understand the decisions. But the one thing I do want to focus on is bringing back some excellence back into our game.

“Our performances have been below par, I don’t think that at the domestic level we have hit the standards that we need, we’ve lost a number of players as well.

“We need to look at all systems across the board, we need to look at coaching, we need to look at the pipeline, we also need to be producing enough players so that it makes it easy to pick and then transformation is not a topic any more.

“I need to understand from that perspective what’s been done at the bottom levels, what’s been done to bring players through to grow the game and to develop the next tier of talent – that’s the focus.

“That’s where I think the most important discussions on transformation are going to happen.”
They toe the company line of saying transformation is important etc but raise the valid point that I've been pushing the whole time that putting in guys who aren't up to it isn't helping them nor is it inspiring anyone to want to be them.

As they said in this article CSA are better off putting their efforts into finding and developing young 'coloured talent' at club & school level so they're ready to play franchise cricket at a high level.

By giving free passes to franchise sides they've diluted the talent in their first class system and again thrown these poor kids into the deep end.

https://cricketfanaticsmag.com/graeme-s ... -policies/
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sloandog
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Re: South Africa Watch

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Yea, good points as usual Jaybro. However having watched the recently concluded Mzansi Super League I was pleasantly surprised at the talent on show. I honestly can’t think of all the names but there must have been 5 or 6 young black fast bowlers throughout the League that hit 85mph regularly. De Zorzi with the bat really impressed me as well and should be looked at for the LOI games of the England tour.
The black talent is there, it just needs fine tuning like Ngidi and Rabada have had done to them. Bavuma I still say is bang average, nor do I like his stinking attitude of being the golden boy of black South Africa. It’s been nearly 5 years since his last test century for god sake.

I’ve said it early but kids like Breetzke, Van Tonder, Verreynne, Malan Jnr are 10 times the players Bavuma will ever be.

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eugene
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Re: South Africa Watch

Post by eugene »

Hopefully South African cricket is turning the corner. These changes have really been driven by sponsors issuing ultimatums. If they had stayed quiet I doubt much would have changed.
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jaybro
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Re: South Africa Watch

Post by jaybro »

sloandog wrote:
Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:12 am
Yea, good points as usual Jaybro. However having watched the recently concluded Mzansi Super League I was pleasantly surprised at the talent on show. I honestly can’t think of all the names but there must have been 5 or 6 young black fast bowlers throughout the League that hit 85mph regularly. De Zorzi with the bat really impressed me as well and should be looked at for the LOI games of the England tour.
The black talent is there, it just needs fine tuning like Ngidi and Rabada have had done to them. Bavuma I still say is bang average, nor do I like his stinking attitude of being the golden boy of black South Africa. It’s been nearly 5 years since his last test century for god sake.

I’ve said it early but kids like Breetzke, Van Tonder, Verreynne, Malan Jnr are 10 times the players Bavuma will ever be.
No doubt there is talent there and as you say it's all about nurturing the talent and developing the players, letting Bavuma collect Test caps like their bottle caps isn't helping anyone.
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zimbos_05
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Re: South Africa Watch

Post by zimbos_05 »

On a side note, anyone know much about Geoffrey Toyana? I have seen some things about how he should have got the post over Boucher. Many on social media have been using the race card again.

sloandog
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Re: South Africa Watch

Post by sloandog »

Bavuma has been dropped, at last.
Smith has really sent some shockwaves through the system since his appointment. Van Der Dussen and Pieter Malan have been preferred and rightly so!
I do worry about what the black South African community will say to this. They’ll miss their transformation targets yet again in this game.

But Bavuma...honestly, the guy grates on me and he has such an arrogance about him

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jaybro
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Re: South Africa Watch

Post by jaybro »

It’s really an injustice it’s taken Pieter Malan this long firnhis debut, he averages 45 and has scored a ton of runs
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zimbos_05
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Re: South Africa Watch

Post by zimbos_05 »

Holy heck, I just saw Malans stats. How has that man been overlooked with stats like that. Quotas are going to destroy sport in Africa

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