Just Keep Winning...

And the Rest will Take Care of itself.

    South Africa’s inability, or unwillingness to try and beat their ‘smaller’ opposition convincingly may come to haunt them, again, having slumped out of the T20 World Cup via the calculator after finishing level on points with Australia and England in the UAE three years ago.

    Winning is ‘all that matters,’ it’s been a South African creed for 30+ years of these ICC events. And it will be endorsed if they beat the West Indies in the early hours of South Africa’s Monday morning, although with the prospect of some rain showers, it might even be in the early hours in Antigua, too.

There has been so shortage of questions around the authenticity of a tournament which allows England to be hammered by Australia and the West Indies to be belted by England with both, potentially, cruising into the last four while South Africa would be flicked away after six consecutive wins and one loss, however narrow, to co-hosts West Indies.

    In that instance, calculators-aside and based on pure instinct, a fair decision would have been reached. South Africa have been tentative and unconvincing, which is not to deny them great credit for winning three games they should have lost with three overs to go. Captain Aiden Markram’s decisions and gambles have been brilliant but he admitted after the England match:

    “Yet again, we got to the last three overs and I was thinking the odds were stacked against us, but for the bowlers to hang in there show’s a lot of skill but it also comes from a deeper, fighting spirit.” That South African ‘gees’ only lasts so long, and it has surely run out. Much better T20 cricket is now required for further progression.

    There is another week to go so, at the risk of tempting fate, the ICC should be tentatively applauded for pulling off, comfortably, the biggest logistical challenge in its event history. It wasn’t just flights and hotels, but new pitches and even a new stadium, all untried. Given what might have happened (abandoned matches, unsafe venue) the New York fixtures were a triumph against the odds. But were they a ‘success’?

    Ever since Sri Lanka’s Maheesh Theekshana let slip after the first game that his team were staying in a hotel 1h:45m minutes from the Nassau County Stadium on Long Island, and that South Africa were staying 15-minutes from the venue, and the amount of travel at inconvenient times their four different match venues entailed, further complaints about logistics have dried up. As did criticism of the pitches etc on TV commentary. If you spend hundreds of millions, you might at least ensure there is no negative criticism from those you are paying.

    But it’s not entirely clear what the end-goal was. Grow and expand the game, or maximise tournament revenue at whatever other cost? Or is it possible to eat from both ends of the pie?

    Those who questioned the feasibility of selling a new product to a ‘new’ market were quick to question the pitches and outfield in New York, but strangely quiet about the fact that 10:30am starts necessitated 5:30am wake-up calls for New Yorkers wanting to beat, or endure, the hectic rush-hour traffic to get to Long Island.

If the morning games in New York started hopelessly before ‘party-time’, the 8:30pm games in the Caribbean finished far too late. It’s an inane cliché to describe the region as a collection of ‘party islands’. Tourists might cope with arriving back at their hotels at 2:00am but locals still have to get up in the morning.

    The South African squad flew from Antigua to St.Lucia at 8:30pm after their Wednesday Super-Eight game against the USA and arrived at their hotel just after 1:00am with the remainder of Thursday to rest before an early start on Friday for the game against England. Shame, you might say, for extremely well-paid professionals just doing their job. They are not the concern, only the quality of their performance.

    Travel schedules are the least relevant details about the integrity of the tournament, which is much more of an exhibition than a competition. Not a criticism, merely an observation.  

    Scheduling one of these T20 World Cups every two years serves its financial purpose and justifies the ICC’s primary status as a one-per-year ‘event organiser’. If we, the followers, haven’t noticed yet, it won’t be long before the consequent devaluation in the status and esteem of them.

    Maybe it’s just ‘loss-fatigue’ that makes the Proteas’ potential elimination this this time feel so much less significant, or maybe it’s that fact that there’ll be a Champions Trophy in seven months, and another T20 World Cup just after that, and then the 50-over version.

    Or perhaps it’s the realisation that there’s no coming back from a schedule like this. Every second or third ICC event is already scheduled to be played in India and now that the schedule is so geared towards the Indian TV market, can we look forward to 11:00pm starts in Australia?

    *Many thanks for the feedback on the last column regarding Josh Hazlewood. Yes, I knew he was joking. But bare one thing in mind: Almost a quarter of a century ago, having lived through the demise of Hansie Cronje’s reputation, I vowed never to take anything, or anybody, for granted again. Always ask the question.