South African Domestic Season 2016/17

[SeamUp]

Magala is a big lad, but he bowls a heavy ball and looks like he's difficult to get away.

He can also hit it, or am I thinking of someone else?

That's the one. He has a little bit about him but if he is serious and wants to keep improving he is going to have to lose weight.

Just on the batting. We need guys to step up on these tours. Remember the days when you had young batsman like Martin van Jaarveld, Jacques Rudolph, Boeta Dippenaar, Ashwell Prince, Neil McKenzie, Zander de Bruyn, Gerald Dros, HD Ackerman in our 'A' team batting line-ups. At the moment we have to drop guys playing for SA and 1 or 2 young players but quite a few are probably a bit out of their depth.

 

[Marius]

That's the one. He has a little bit about him but if he is serious and wants to keep improving he is going to have to lose weight.

Just on the batting. We need guys to step up on these tours. Remember the days when you had young batsman like Martin van Jaarveld, Jacques Rudolph, Boeta Dippenaar, Ashwell Prince, Neil McKenzie, Zander de Bruyn, Gerald Dros, HD Ackerman in our 'A' team batting line-ups. At the moment we have to drop guys playing for SA and 1 or 2 young players but quite a few are probably a bit out of their depth.

Yeah, I remember, we used to have very strong A-line ups.

Just looked at Magala's stats for last season, pretty impressive. In the Sunfoil series in the last five games he took 21 wickets at just over 20, and made 130 runs at about 19. If he works hard he could be a real prospect.

Along with guys like him, Savage, Pretorius, Phehlukwayo, we have some decent all-rounders coming through. Maybe we're seeing a return to the days of the 1990s. Then, when the selectors needed an all-rounder they just went to the nearest tree and shook it till one fell out.

 

[Rasimione]

Magala has the pace to get wickets but needs to lose the weight. If he works hard in his fitness I've reason to Believe he can bowl at good pace for extended spells. CSA needs to find a way to get talented black batsmen(African black). There's sufficient black fast bowlers but not enough batsmen. I'm not really sure who's good enough even at u19 level.

After many seasons of struggle it seems the allrounder stocks are filling up again. Although I'd prefer we get batting allrounders. We don't seem to be produce good enough one's hence our ODI team is so unbalanced.

 

[SeamUp]

SA U19 playing Sri Lanka - Team for first test

1. Jesse Christensen (Western Province)
2. Josh van Heerden (Northerns)
3. Raynard van Tonder (Free State)
4. Wiaan Mulder (c) (seam) (Gauteng)
5. Wandile Makwetu (Gauteng)
6. Jerome Bossr (KZN)
7. Ricardo Vasconcelos (wk) (Boland)
8. Jade de Klerk (spin) (Eastern Province)
9. Eathan Bosch (seam) (KZN)
10. Akhona Mnyaka (seam) (Border)
11. Siphamandla Krweqe (seam) (Border)

van Tonder fresh off a 147 and 77* in warm-up game. Captain Mulder got 79 as well. Mnyaka got 3 wickets.

 

[StephenZA]

South Africa cricket could face talent exodus | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo
Worrying to see this sort of article... cricket I felt had handled transformation better than Rugby initially, but the last 5 years its not been good.With the weak Rand not improving anytime soon. And then you see Steyn and Morkel treated like that, (and probably others) gotta question priorities. A weak national team helps nobody.

If you see the number of top SA rugby players overseas at the moment and the downfall of our super franchises...if cricket starts following same trend it will not be good for SA as our franchise system is already weaker than it should be....

 

[anil1405]

Am afraid things are only getting worse. With exodus of talent, the national team is bound to suffer for the next few years. And unless something dramatic happens at the administration level, things will only deteriorate even further.

I hope South Africa do not become the next West Indies. Sad to see a cricketing super power triggering the self-destruction button.

 

[Stefan9]

South Africa cricket could face talent exodus | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo
Worrying to see this sort of article... cricket I felt had handled transformation better than Rugby initially, but the last 5 years its not been good.With the weak Rand not improving anytime soon. And then you see Steyn and Morkel treated like that, (and probably others) gotta question priorities. A weak national team helps nobody.

If you see the number of top SA rugby players overseas at the moment and the downfall of our super franchises...if cricket starts following same trend it will not be good for SA as our franchise system is already weaker than it should be....

I don't really see why cricket and rugby has this issue, its really easy to solve. Just follow the football example and pick overseas based players.

 

[StephenZA]

I don't really see why cricket and rugby has this issue, its really easy to solve. Just follow the football example and pick overseas based players.

I`m not to sure how serious this statement was but...

Two main issues with the loss of players. Firstly, the local franchise system suffers which has a knock on effect to the local structure, where players are not playing at a high enough standard even low down, and thus don`t get to hone or learn skills. Additional to this would also be media attention and growth of the game, if the franchise system is strong it creates a more exciting environment which can gets people involved, and this also contributes directly to how much money, which is important for the franchises.

The second big issue, which can be seen with the rugby players picked from overseas, the clubs they play for don`t care about SA cricket and can put huge pressure on the these players not to return to international cricket or even the SA 'Á' side etc. Also CSA would have almost no ability to talk with the clubs regarding conditioning and keeping the top players fit. Quite often you see players burnt out when they head back to international duty.

Central contracting can solve some of these problems for the top players, but there is a limit to CSA finances, which brings us back to having a strong franchise system that can make money.

 

[Stefan9]

I`m not to sure how serious this statement was but...

Two main issues with the loss of players. Firstly, the local franchise system suffers which has a knock on effect to the local structure, where players are not playing at a high enough standard even low down, and thus don`t get to hone or learn skills. Additional to this would also be media attention and growth of the game, if the franchise system is strong it creates a more exciting environment which can gets people involved, and this also contributes directly to how much money, which is important for the franchises.

The second big issue, which can be seen with the rugby players picked from overseas, the clubs they play for don`t care about SA cricket and can put huge pressure on the these players not to return to international cricket or even the SA 'Á' side etc. Also CSA would have almost no ability to talk with the clubs regarding conditioning and keeping the top players fit. Quite often you see players burnt out when they head back to international duty.

Central contracting can solve some of these problems for the top players, but there is a limit to CSA finances, which brings us back to having a strong franchise system that can make money.

The world is now a global village. You are only hurting yourself by refusing to pick overseas based players. All those issues you mentioned applies to international football as well but they work with it because they can't compete with clubs finances. Brazil,argentina,france,ect have been successful for years with most of their footballers based outside of their countries.

No matter how strong CSA's domestic franchise is given the different market forces they will not be able to offer more money then the ipl or county cricket. So they need to emrbace it pick overseas players imho.

 

[StephenZA]

CSA bans four players for corruption - SuperSport - Cricket

Huge for SA. Particularly disappointed by Thami Tsolekile involvment. But got what they deserve.

 

[Leftarmtweaker]

RIP SA cricket. Quotas, match-fixing and general under-performance. What next? de Villiers retirement?

 

[OverratedSanity]

CSA bans four players for corruption - SuperSport - Cricket

Huge for SA. Particularly disappointed by Thami Tsolekile involvment. But got what they deserve.

Woah, that's terrible.

 

[Marius]

CSA bans four players for corruption - SuperSport - Cricket

Huge for SA. Particularly disappointed by Thami Tsolekile involvment. But got what they deserve.

According to Telford Vice it's racist or something.

Match-fixing has been seen as prevalent only among SA?s black cricketers | Cricket | BDlive

 

[StephenZA]

According to Telford Vice it's racist or something.

Match-fixing has been seen as prevalent only among SA?s black cricketers | Cricket | BDlive

I think he is commenting more that the public in SA tend to say "look its the black players".... I`ve heard such incorrect sentiments, it is an unfortunate reality of our society.

What it possibly does have to do with is economics rather than race...

 

[Marius]

I think he is commenting more that the public in SA tend to say "look its the black players".... I`ve heard such incorrect sentiments, it is an unfortunate reality of our society.

What it possibly does have to do with is economics rather than race...

I have to be honest, I never did. But Vice loves sticking some garbage racial or societal angle into 90% of what he writes.

If anyone thinks of match fixing in SA they still think of Hansie, not these guys.

 

[Stefan9]

I think he is commenting more that the public in SA tend to say "look its the black players".... I`ve heard such incorrect sentiments, it is an unfortunate reality of our society.

What it possibly does have to do with is economics rather than race...

Has to do with greed. Gibbs and Cronje came from middle class families...

As for Vice I ignore his and wife's articles. I don't care for their political agenda's...

 

[Marius]

Has to do with greed. Gibbs and Cronje came from middle class families...

As for Vice I ignore his and wife's articles. I don't care for their political agenda's...

When Vice writes about cricket and leaves his politics out of it, he's OK. His wife's writing is uniformly terrible.

 

[Flem274*]

its good they caught them and nailed them in domestic cricket though, rather than turned a blind eye and let it fester like other countries have in the past.

 

[SeamUp]

Not sure I've got the enthusiasm as I once did for cricket let alone the passion with which I've watched and studied South Africa's cricketing past that has graced the international stage and in some cases not enough.

But as I type this we about to enter another 2-match-test-series and SA cricket is at an all-time low in terms of quality (since the 40's -50s ?) and are picking teams are racial grounds again. How is this different to apartheid and putting us in isolation ? If the ICC had any integrity they will start to look at our situation with interest.

Our domestic game is so weak due to racial quotas which in turn is not setting up our best players to be good enough for the international stage. Our SA 'A' team and SA u19 have been embarrassed like never before. We sitting with a coach who probably is out of his depth and is only sticking around because he is a yes-man (CSA transformation) and the lack of money the CSA has to sack him off ?

In recent months SA cricket has not only lost a young cricketer or two but more importantly some of our best cricketing minds who coach like Allan Donald, HD Ackerman, Rob Walter to name but a few. Malibongwe Maketa, Vince Barnes and Shane Burger are with the South African 'A' team. Really ? I'm flabbergasted.

Let's not forget to mention Tsolekile & his gang of match-fixers. Tsolekile was never good enough for international cricket but he thought the game owed him something and he said stuff professionalism and respect of the local game. It's bad that these sorts of characters have been working with the next generation of SA cricketers. Tsotsobe for some time was known as a lazy prick who thought the game owed him the world and never put in the work ethic expected of international cricketer.

I've never seen South African cricket so directionless.

But trying to get positive ahead of a new season but I don't think CSA will get any of my money watching live cricket and I hope others follow suit because SA cricket is dying quickly. More quickly than I ever imagined.

 

[SeamUp]

On the positive side trying to look at the young talent around & what they doing in the off-season who should be fast-tracked into SA set-up due to the state of our domestic game :

Aiden Markram - 2nd leading run scorer in the Bolton League
Theunis de Bruyn - With SA 'A'. Scored a couple of 50's v Zim. Didn't play tests v Australia 'A' but with the 50-over squad.
Zubayr Hamza - Wylie predicts bright future for Hamza - SuperSport - Cricket
Jason Smith - Smith a potential star in the making - SuperSport - Cricket
Wiaan Mulder - Lions coach backs young Wiaan to produce | IOL
Calvin Savage - Leading wicket-taker in the Kent League & chipping in with runs
Andile Phehlukwayo - one of the stand-outs in SA 'A' series considering age.
Daryn Dupavillon - Coming back from shoulder surgery in the off-season
Duanne Olivier - Good start for SA 'A' & hopefully it becomes obvious with Dupavillon that they jump Viljoen,De Lange,Paterson,Hendricks,Magala very soon.