R Hartman: SA Cricket - To Be or Not to Be? (6 Oct 1997)

5 October 1997

To be or not to be - that is the big question that SA cricket must answer.

Rodney Hartman

When you switch on your television set at 6:30 tomorrow morning, the last person you'll be thinking of, I'll vouch, is William Shakespeare. He is not the sort of stuff that readily springs to mind as you prepare to watch a cricket match (although it is just possible that "Out, damned spot! Out I say!" might just do as you wipe last night's crushed mosquito off the TV screen) yet as you settle down to watch the first ball of the Rawapindi Test, remember well that: There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage..... is bound in shallows and in miseries.' Think constantly of these words as the long hot summer progresses because within them lie the destiny of South African cricket. With us now is the season to end all seasons and, when it finally closes at about 6:30 in the evening of April 22, the sails of the game in this country will be either fair set or floundering.

A lot of questions will have to be answered in the months ahead. Some will concern the state of affairs on the field of play; others will be directed at those who shape the game of cricket from the boundary. It is, I suggest, the season in which SA cricket will establish a definitive identity, for better or for worse. For the national team, the requirement is as simple as it is monumental. Between tomorrow and April 22, it will be required to 11 five-day Test matches and a possible 22 one-day internationals. Of the Tests, six will represent the toughest challenge there is - three in Pakistan and in quick succession, three in Australia. Before Hansie and the boys even return from Australia, Pakistan will already be in this country, preparing for two more Tests. Hot on their heels will come Sri Lanka for two more. On top of this will be the ceaseless stream of one-dayers with all their energy-sapping, muscle-tearing, mind-numbing, crowd-thrilling mayhem. The requirement on the players is this: they must take the tide at the flood or be washed ashore into the miserable shallows.

Shakespearean claptrap? Maybe, but no less dramatic. If ever Hansie and the boys had the chance to pierce the envelope, it is now. Remember, within a month of the final international match of the exhausting southern hemisphere season, they will be playing against England at The Oval in the opening match of a three-month tour that will include five Test matches and a possible six one-day internationals. Against the backdrop of sheer attrition, big things are afoot. In the boardroom, the South African cricket is seeking greater input, new blood and a change of direction to better embrace the components of the democracy. The pivotal statement came from Ali Bacher this week. "This office," he said with a sweep of the United Cricket Board's headquarters, "can no longer drive the process."

This is not an admission of failure but quite the opposite. It is cricket saying that everything is in place - structures, sponsorships, expertise - and it is now up to the people on the ground to decide where they want cricket to go. In short, the UCB is drafting a new constitution. At the head of its steering committee is Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, and all involved in the game - from chief executives to grassroots aspirants - are being canvassed. The new blueprint is scheduled to be unveiled in Cape Town on April 21. A day later, South Africa may or may-not be involved in the final of the 10-match triangular one-day series featuring Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Thus, to conclude the unfinished opening stanza: "On such a full sea we are now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.

Source:: Sunday Times

Contributed by Tony Hassett