The ennui of another featureless day on tour appeared to be significantly off-set by the prospect of watching Christiano Ronaldo once again playing football for Manchester United, almost two decades after his first debut for them and 12 years since his last game at Old Trafford.
14 professional teams, or more to the point, professional organisations, is not only economically not viable, but what is it going to do to the standard of 1st Class cricket in SA? The franchise system had about 120 professional players. You are now adding at least 100 more players to the competition who weren't good enough to get a franchise contract. That's a lot of dilution to the quality of the competition. Are the teams now going t be made up of some professionals and some semi-professionals, or are the better 1st Class players in for a pay cut? The pie has not got any bigger, but suddenly there are twice as many people around the table!
Dear Mr Horse, I really enjoy your feedback and the fact that you almost always make considered, thought-provoking comments and observations. On this (rare) occasion you have misread the situation. In fact, there are around 70 LESS professional cricketers in the new structure because the provincial structure, which existed alongside the Franchise structure, has now been dropped. So whereas there used to be 18 teams (6 Franchise and 12 Provincial) there are now only 15 provincial teams with significantly reduced squad sizes. The 2nd Division teams will only have 11-12 contracted players and will make use of the best club players to supplement their teams which opens the door, hopefully, to late developers. Anyway, there will be many, painful teething problems (root-canal in some cases) but I do beleive the autonomy of the provinces is the way forward. Five of the Franchises have been bickering, unhappy marriages for 18 years...
Neil, thanks for the explanation. So that should be good news for the better provincial players who can get/retain a contract with one of the 15 teams. Thanks, Damian.
14 professional teams, or more to the point, professional organisations, is not only economically not viable, but what is it going to do to the standard of 1st Class cricket in SA? The franchise system had about 120 professional players. You are now adding at least 100 more players to the competition who weren't good enough to get a franchise contract. That's a lot of dilution to the quality of the competition. Are the teams now going t be made up of some professionals and some semi-professionals, or are the better 1st Class players in for a pay cut? The pie has not got any bigger, but suddenly there are twice as many people around the table!
Dear Mr Horse, I really enjoy your feedback and the fact that you almost always make considered, thought-provoking comments and observations. On this (rare) occasion you have misread the situation. In fact, there are around 70 LESS professional cricketers in the new structure because the provincial structure, which existed alongside the Franchise structure, has now been dropped. So whereas there used to be 18 teams (6 Franchise and 12 Provincial) there are now only 15 provincial teams with significantly reduced squad sizes. The 2nd Division teams will only have 11-12 contracted players and will make use of the best club players to supplement their teams which opens the door, hopefully, to late developers. Anyway, there will be many, painful teething problems (root-canal in some cases) but I do beleive the autonomy of the provinces is the way forward. Five of the Franchises have been bickering, unhappy marriages for 18 years...
Neil, thanks for the explanation. So that should be good news for the better provincial players who can get/retain a contract with one of the 15 teams. Thanks, Damian.
This lack of money is clearly a result of many years of mismanagement / other failings.
I was frankly gob-smacked when I downloaded the latest CSA app for iPhone, and found it riddled with in-play purchases.
To remove the adverts, you are asked to pay R20 a month or something - I can't recall exact amount.
This takes the begging bowl concept to a new low. It would be laughable if not so sad.
Mike, I don't like the sound of that - at all. I've asked a couple of people far more qualified than me to investigate, and will revert...