by John Wisden
Soon the financial crunch of no home games (and no full India series in five years) will begin to bite. A senior PCB official believes a new broadcast deal in 2013, and revenues from the 2011 World Cup (which Pakistan didn’t host, but for which they received a hosting-rights fee) are enough for two more years. Against this backdrop, the announcement of a fortnight-long Pakistan Super League (scheduled to start on March 26, 2013) took on greater significance. But in February, the PCB postponed the tournament, ostensibly to allow investors more time to buy the five franchises. The Federation of International Cricketers Associations, however, maintained that the PSL would pose “an unmanageable” security risk. The postponement struck a rare note of disruption in a year of relative sanity.
For the time being, at least, craziness has been loaned out to New Zealand Cricket.
SOUTH AFRICAN CRICKET, 2012
All bases covered
COLIN BRYDEN
South Africa ignored boardroom uncertainty to put together arguably their best year in Test cricket. Unbeaten in ten matches, they won all four series – three away from home – to finish 2012 as the undisputed No. 1 team in the world. Victories at home against Sri Lanka, followed by wins in New Zealand, England – the team they deposed at the top of the rankings – and Australia vindicated the unorthodox approach of their coach, Gary Kirsten, who placed the emphasis on mental freshness rather than physical preparation. Although most of the team had not played first-class cricket for more than three months, South Africa had only one two-day match and one first-class three-day fixture before their Test series against England. The main event of their build-up had been a team-building exercise in Switzerland with the Johannesburg-born mountaineer and adventurer Mike Horn, who had worked with Kirsten before, during his stint as coach of India. The Alpine adventure evidently had the desired effect of energising and motivating the players.
Despite struggling in the field on the first day at The Oval, South Africa then came as close to the perfect Test match against credible opposition as possible, winning by an innings while losing only two wickets, and celebrating Hashim Amla’s epic unbeaten 311, the first Test triple-century by a South African. When a hard-earned victory in the Third Test at Lord’s settled the series, England handed over the ICC mace.
As in 2008, triumph in England was followed by a tour of Australia – and, once again, South Africa were able to complete a remarkable double. On this occasion, though, there were legitimate grounds to wonder if they had gone into the three-match series with sufficient physical preparation. After a less than convincing warm-up game against Australia A, their bowlers took a pummelling in the First Test at Brisbane, although defeat was never likely after the second day was washed out.
Australia then dominated the Second Test, at Adelaide, with Michael Clarke making his second successive double-century, and seemed set for victory when South Africa, set an improbable 430, ended the fourth day on 77 for four. But Francois du Plessis – “Faf” to almost everyone – led a remarkable rearguard action on Test debut to steer South Africa to safety with two wickets to spare. On the only pitch which gave their fast bowlers any assistance, they then gained a huge win in the decisive Test, at Perth.
Impressively solid batting and a potent fast-bowling attack had been the foundation of their success. A top five of Graeme Smith, Alviro Petersen, Amla, Jacques Kallis and A. B. de Villiers made 4,463 runs between them at an average of nearly 58. Amla headed the list, with 1,064 runs at 70, including four centuries – two each against England and Australia – and Kallis was not far behind, with 944 at 67. Petersen underlined his value as Smith’s opening partner, and it was a measure of South Africa’s success that his 815 runs at almost 48 made him the least successful of the quintet. Kallis missed one Test because of injury, but the other four played in all ten.
A horrific eye injury which ended the career of long-serving wicketkeeper Mark Boucher had the unintended consequence of strengthening the batting, as de Villiers took the gloves and South Africa were able to field seven batsmen. J-P. Duminy took advantage of his opportunities, first when Kallis was injured in New Zealand, then as the extra batsman in England, and averaged 90 before he ruptured an Achilles tendon while warming down after the opening day of the Test series in Australia. But that simply opened the door for du Plessis. The performances at No. 6 of Jacques Rudolph (435 runs at 39) were relatively modest.
The pace trio of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander took 120 of the 160 wickets claimed by South African bowlers during the year, despite operating mainly on unhelpful pitches. But Imran Tahir’s leg-spin proved less effective, and he was dropped for Perth, where slow left-armer Robin Peterson, a perennial tourist but seldom a Test cricketer, made an impressive comeback.
There was concern about the bowling depth, with Marchant de Lange – who had made a sensational debut in the last Test of 2011 – not playing at all after pulling out of the England tour with a stress fracture. Rory Kleinveldt played in two Tests in Australia with mixed success.
Under the new leadership of de Villiers, South Africa won eight one-day internationals and lost four, winning series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, and sharing the honours in England. Amla top-scored in the last two matches in New Zealand, and in all four innings in England, to set a world record. But an ongoing problem was the lack of an effective bowling combination at the death.
The biggest disappointment came at the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka. After winning both their group matches, including a rain-shortened encounter against the hosts, South Africa lost all three in the Super Eights, against Pakistan, Australia and India. Poor starts with the bat, and equally poor bowling towards the end of innings, were largely to blame.
The cricket took place against a backdrop of legal wrangling over the dismissal of chief executive Gerald Majola, and controversy over the implementation of a new system of administration. Cricket South Africa’s annual general meeting, normally held in August, was postponed twice, the second time until February 2013, by which time the presidency and the chief executive’s role had been in the hands of acting-officials for almost a year.
In what should have been an end to a saga that started when South Africa hosted the IPL in 2009, Judge Chris Nicholson’s findings after a ministerial enquiry were damning of Majola. He recommended a criminal investigation and disciplinary action by CSA following Majola’s pocketing of undeclared bonuses. Majola refused to take part in the hearing, which recommended he be sacked, choosing instead to take the matter to the Labour Court in Johannesburg.
Nicholson recommended an overhaul of the system of governance, with a majority of independent directors. CSA initially opted for an even split, but it was not a universally popular decision. When the annual meeting was finally held on February 2, 2013, a split of seven non-independent and five independent directors was approved. Chris Nenzani, a relative newcomer to administration who had been president of the Border Cricket Board since 2010, was elected president.
Norman Arendse, a former president of CSA, was elected lead independent director. A nomination panel had initially recommended him, but this was vetoed by CSA on the grounds that he had recently been involved in cricket. He challenged the ruling and was eventually accepted as a director. Arendse’s tenure as CSA president between 2007 and 2008 was notable for acrimony and alleged interference in selection.
Jacques Faul, the acting-chief executive, made no secret of his frustration with the ongoing wrangling, and announced he would not be available for a full-time role at national level. Instead he was named chief executive of the Northerns Union.
Yet another cloud on the horizon was a row over the non-selection of Thami Tsolekile for the Test series against New Zealand in January 2013. Tsolekile had been told he would probably take over behind the stumps after the Australia series, only for de Villiers to decide he wanted to keep wicket on a long-term basis. With no black African players in the squad, the controversy became a racial issue. Makhaya Ntini, the only bl
ack African to have made a major impact in international cricket, claimed Tsolekile would have been picked if he had been white.
In South Africa, cricket is seldom a matter of simply playing the game.
SRI LANKA CRICKET, 2012
Taking Haroon’s medicine
SA’ADI THAWFEEQ
Sri Lanka moved into 2013 hoping that the lion’s share of the independent report submitted by former ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat would be implemented to streamline administration and make the board more financially viable. Sri Lanka Cricket had hired the services of Lorgat, an accountant, in July in the face of mounting debts and heavy overstaffing. He was given three months to talk to stakeholders, and had access to financial accounts.
His report, delivered in November, was welcomed by sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who wanted several of the recommendations to be pushed through – chief among them to make cricket exempt from the Sports Law that governs every sporting body in Sri Lanka (which requires the sports minister to approve major selectorial decisions).
All in all, 2012 turned out to be an uncomfortable year, beginning as it did with the sacking of head coach Geoff Marsh, and ending with a dismal innings defeat in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. But the most serious blow came in between, when Sri Lanka failed to win the World Twenty20 in home conditions. Defeat by West Indies in Colombo was the fourth time in five years they had lost a major tournament final.
Like Marsh, who unsuccessfully sought legal redress for his removal, Tillekeratne Dilshan paid with his position as captain after the South Africa tour of 2011-12, having presided over four straight series defeats in both Tests and one-day internationals. Mahela Jayawardene agreed to come back in his place for one year, until the end of the tour of Australia in January 2013. Angelo Mathews took over, with Dinesh Chandimal becoming captain of the Twenty20 team. Changes also came in the selection committee, with Ashantha de Mel returning as chairman in place of Duleep Mendis. Marsh’s replacement, the South African Graham Ford, had become the fourth man to coach Sri Lanka since the 2011 World Cup. He fitted in well, and helped turn the players into a more professional unit.
Under the new structure, Sri Lanka were able at least to arrest their run of Test defeats. At home, they drew 1–1 with England, beat Pakistan, then drew – disappointingly, perhaps – with New Zealand. For this, they were indebted to the flourishing of left-arm spinner Rangana Herath at the age of 34. Though a slightly ungainly, round-arm bowler, he took five six-wicket hauls in the home Tests, not always with the help of the DRS. He finished with more Test wickets in the year (60) than anyone, and at a strike-rate of 53, two better than Muttiah Muralitharan’s career figure. The rest of Sri Lanka’s bowlers took only 79 wickets between them, with Suraj Randiv the next-highest on 22. He could have done with help from elsewhere, but only Kumar Sangakkara and Mathews averaged above 40 with the bat.
After seven years of government-appointed interim committees, SLC finally held an annual general meeting in January 2012. The change of attitude followed an ICC resolution that all member boards should be free of political interference. But amid allegations of voter intimidation, Upali Dharmadasa – SLC president from 1996–98, and interim committee chairman before it was dissolved – won uncontested when his chief rival for the presidency, Thilanga Sumathipala, withdrew. In fact, all the opposition candidates withdrew in protest, and all the main office bearers were elected uncontested, in a process presided over by the sports ministry.
The first task of this new committee was to clear a deficit approaching $70m, mostly a result of constructing new venues at Hambantota and Pallekele, and renovating Colombo’s Premadasa Stadium for the 2011 World Cup. “It will be a struggle for about five years,” predicted Dharmadasa, whose request for financial assistance from the government was turned down.
SLC had not had enough money to pay the salaries of their employees and 100 contracted cricketers since the World Cup. However, Aluthgamage negotiated with the state-owned Bank of Ceylon to release SLRs600m ($5.07m) to SLC. This, coupled with the 42% of World Cup participation fees which the ICC paid directly to the players’ accounts in December 2011, allowed the outstanding dues to be settled. By cutting down on administrative overheads and contracted players, as well as receiving revenues from hosting a one-day tour by India and the World Twenty20, SLC managed to clear some of their deficit.
The inaugural Sri Lankan Premier League was supposed to rake in more money, although it had been in danger of not getting off the ground when SLC ran into a contractual issue with their international players. Somerset Entertainment Ventures, a sporting business company based in Singapore, secured SLPL rights for the next seven years, guaranteeing SLC $4m each year. The timing of the tournament, two months before the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, failed to entice the spectators, although several international cricketers – especially Pakistanis ostracised from the IPL – appeared for the seven teams involved. Sri Lanka managed to unearth two new players: opener Dilshan Munaweera and spinner Akila Dananjaya both featured in the World Twenty20.
SLC sacrificed two Tests in the Caribbean and a three-Test home series against South Africa scheduled for 2013 in order to accommodate the IPL and a triangular one-day series. Sri Lanka’s Test calendar was looking empty. SLC came in for severe criticism from past players and administrators for undermining Test cricket. The debacle at Melbourne, where Sri Lanka lost inside three days, was cited as evidence that they needed to play more Tests to be rated among the top nations. That was a battle the Dharmadasa administration had to wage against a sagging bank balance.
WEST INDIES CRICKET, 2012
Peace brings prizes
TONY COZIER
For West Indies Cricket Board president Julian Hunte it was “a watershed year” for the sport in the Caribbean. The region was, he declared in his annual review, “better positioned for the rest of the decade on many fronts”. And there certainly was a climate of rare optimism. Hunte’s confidence was predicated on victory at the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, as well as a lucrative agreement with Taj TV for global rights for the next seven years which, he said, would ensure West Indies’ financial viability. Another potentially profitable deal was done with Verus International, a merchant bank based in New York and Barbados, for a license to operate a private, professional Twenty20 league of six city-based franchise teams, to replace the WICB’s existing tournament from October 2013.
Ajmal Khan, the chief executive of Verus, proclaimed his intention to make the Caribbean Premier League “one of the most enviable franchises anywhere in the world”, and said he would invest “whatever it takes, in the hundreds of millions” to ensure its success. These were phrases that might have come straight from Allen Stanford’s handbook of hyperbole but, following their blessing of Stanford 20/20, which had embarrassingly crashed three years earlier after the fraudulent Texan’s arrest and 110-year sentence, the WICB emphasised they had thoroughly verified Verus’s credentials.
West Indies cricket, though, was still riddled with weaknesses. The game at regional level remained substandard, hampered by poor pitches and unreliable umpiring. The WICB, meanwhile, were mired in the past: for the second time, they rejected the main proposals of a report commissioned by Hunte himself, which called upon the board to modernise their structure and governance. The successive resignations of the constantly quarrelling chief executives – Dinanath Ramnarine of the West Indies Players’ Association, and the WICB’s Ernest Hilaire – at least brought a welcome period of détente between the union and the board, but WIPA’s two lawsuits against the WICB, one seeking $20m for restraint of trade, carried over into 2013.
More than a year after the Guyanese government had replaced the WICB’s affiliate board with an interim management committee, no settlement of the dispute was in sight; the upshot was a moratorium on all regional and international matches in Guyana, a country that had staged their inaugural first-class match in 1865, and the first of their 32 Tests in 1930.
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sp; The widespread euphoria at the Twenty20 title was reflected in an editorial in the Trinidad Express, which declared it had “lifted the spirit of the entire region as one”. The reaction was much the same after West Indies’ victory in the 2004 Champions Trophy; but that had quickly dissipated into the distress of disputes and defeat. This time, the victory was straddled by a pair of 2–0 Test wins, over New Zealand and Bangladesh. And a 2–1 home success for West Indies A in unofficial Tests against India A added a little more substance to the excitement. However, a 3–2 one-day loss in Bangladesh brought the year to an unsatisfactory end.
In the more difficult Test assignments, West Indies lost 2–0 both to Australia at home and England away. Still, they took all but one of the six games in those two series to the fifth day – a detail that, in the context of recent history, was confirmation West Indies had grown increasingly competitive; Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur said they had “gone toe-to-toe with us”. And that was without three key players – Chris Gayle (reinstated midway through the England tour through the intervention of two prime ministers after a lengthy standoff with the WICB), Marlon Samuels and Sunil Narine (both engaged in the IPL, Narine triumphantly so).
Four wins in ten Tests exactly doubled the 2011 ratio, while 14 hundreds were spread among seven different batsmen; only three had scored centuries the previous year. Samuels was the star. His renaissance after a two-year suspension for suspected dealings with an Indian bookmaker was a tribute to his determination, and an example to others. The overdue fulfilment of his dormant class brought an awesome striking power to an uncertain middle order. He amassed 866 runs in seven Tests, including a double-hundred and two singles; his pièce de résistance was the breathtaking 78 off 56 balls that stunned Sri Lanka in the World Twenty20 final. But a fracas with Shane Warne in the 2012-13 Big Bash in Australia showed he could still be needled by the opposition.