SA hope Rabada puts ban behind him as WTC final beckons

Kagiso Rabada's wellbeing was top of mind for Cricket South Africa (CSA) when the organisation learnt of his positive drugs test and subsequent month-long ban. Coach Shukri Conrad, Test and ODI captain Temba Bavuma and director of the national team and high performance Enoch Nkwe are all satisfied that Rabada is not a regular recreational drug user, has educated himself and is ready to get back to his best at the World Test Championship final next month.

"I've been engaging with KG ever since I learnt about it," Conrad said at a press conference in Johannesburg, where South Africa's squad for the WTC final was announced. "The biggest thing for me was whether KG is all right and to close ranks around him and ensure that he's in a good space. At the end of the day, we care for all our players. He served his sentence, and all that I'm interested in now is KG producing performances that we know he's capable of."

Rabada tested positive on January 21 after a match between MI Cape Town and Durban's Super Giants in the SA20 for what the South African Institute of Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS, which is a signatory to the World Anti Doping Agency) calls a "substance of abuse." SAIDS will reveal the exact substance on June 4, 30 days after Rabada's appeal period lapses, but according to their doping code, it can only be one of four: cannabis, cocaine, heroin or ecstasy.

Several sources around Rabada said they hoped it was a one-off while recognising that the chances of someone using a substance just once and being caught are minimal, which has raised questions over Rabada's general wellbeing. Nkwe confirmed that the incident happened "out of competition" (which is not on a match day) but had no further details while Bavuma, also a long-time friend of Rabada's, said his "biggest concern is more from a personal point of view. If there is an issue there, then he gets the support that he needs. If there's not an issue, if it was him being reckless, then he deals with it.

"The sledging, the media from the UK, from Australia, he deals with that. Just make sure that he comes out better from the situation."

The timing of Rabada's indiscretion, with a WTC final against Australia in England as his next assignment, means that there will be more spotlight on his sanction than usual. Already, former Australian captain Tim Paine has criticised the communication around Rabada leaving the IPL for what was at the time said to be "personal reasons" even though by then, Rabada knew he was banned.

Nkwe explained that CSA was unable to communicate any more detail because they needed to "respect SAIDS in driving the process and ensuring that everything was completed correctly. SAIDS embarked on that process and unless an individual feels that they want to come out straight away, it is a private matter. We needed to respect that when it was time for information to be shared, it was shared by SAIDS."

Conrad was blunt in his response to Rabada's naysayers. "To Tim Paine and everybody else out there, I'd probably say something simple like, 'Let he without sin cast the first stone.' I'd leave it at that."

Paine resigned as Australia's captain in 2021, after it was revealed that he was involved in an explicit text-message scandal before he took over as captain. He had ascended to that post in the wake of Sandpapergate, when Cameron Bancroft was caught using sandpaper on the ball during the Newlands Test - in a series where tensions had been simmering all the way through. Rabada earned demerit points for a shoulder brush against Smith in the second Test and was initially banned from the following two games before a successful appeal and his history with Australia is fraught. Nkwe expects that to continue. "We know the Australians are probably going to use it against him. But he's gone through that journey, in 2018 with sandpaper-gate and we saw the outcome of that."

For now, Nkwe said, Rabada has paid his penance, which included two educational sessions.

"As much as he's a superstar, he can also make a mistake," Nkwe said. "But for us now, it's the educational side of things and putting that into practice. It's one of the things that he wants to drive - educating the youth and turning this thing around and making it into a positive message. For a 19-year-old or a 16-year-old, to hear it from someone that has done great things for South Africa, I think it becomes even more impactful."