The Great Unsold

The World of AirBnB

    The Great Unsold

    Anybody who has ever been in a position to let a property, or just a room, thus becoming landlords, will be familiar with the anxiety that comes with each new tenant, short, medium or long-term. AirBnB hosts are reasonably well protected by the mother body which has a decent but far from guaranteed screening process, but the fate of your furniture and fittings is still beyond your control.

    People let their appartments and spare rooms for different reasons. Some for a bit of spare cash to pay for a few luxuries, others because they can’t pay the monthly bills without the extra income. The second group are inevitably more stressed than the first fearing the cost of damage caused by careless or disrespectful tenants.

    But both groups must remember the basic tenet of the service industry – ‘the customer is always right’ - and it is the person who is paying the money rather than recipient who is initially favoured in a dispute. The tenant is the customer.

    The landlord can ask the tenant to water the plants but it can’t be a condition of occupancy. Terms and conditions cover criminal and anti-social behaviour which apply to everybody, but landlords can’t expect their rent-paying customers to feed the cat, cut the grass or generally maintain the property in their absence.

    Back in 2009 when Cricket South Africa hosted the IPL the organisation was in the ‘extra cash’ bracket of landlords. It wasn’t just fun, it was exhilarating and, although the IPL drove a hard bargain, the rent was still a giant bucketful of honey.

    There were disagreements and clashes on the ground, of course. Lifelong sponsors and supporters of South Africa’s major venues had their noses badly disjointed when the IPL teams took over corporate suites and VIP parking, nudged provincial presidents off the head table – sometimes out of the room – and generally made themselves at home. They were the sort of AirBnB tenants who play loud music and put their running shoes in the washing machine, as was their right. They paid the money.

    Fast forward 13 years and CSA was most definitely in the second category of landlord. Having bickered and administered themselves into a deep financial hole they needed to sell the third edition of their T20 league to the highest bidders and hope for the best. It was the ‘landlordian’ equivalent of renting out a beloved family bungalow to a rock band between gigs. The money may be huge but so is the anxiety.

    And so the band arrived in South Africa and the party kicked off with the SA20 Player Auction. Hopes were high that the guests would all respect local customs and traditions and observe the house rules. They had, after all, all appointed various local coaches in either ‘head’ or assistant roles. They would, surely, purchase an appropriate squad of 17 players once they had splurged the big bucks on the half dozen ‘big names’ up front.

    But there is no room philanthropy or compromise in this model. The IPL franchises bought the SA20 for two reasons, in whatever order: to win it and to help make their team even stronger in the main event in India, which is – and always will be – the only one which really matters. No thought or care was given to how they ‘looked’ after the auction. Even in the actual IPL Auction, the real thing, Indian Test hero, Cheteshwar Pujara, was given a contract as a mark of respect.

    In South Africa, neither national captain was bought. Dean Elgar may not make a starting XI but is all that experience really not worth a place in a squad of 17? And the shunning of white-ball captain Temba Bavuma was an embarrassing disgrace. Yes, he has work to do on his T20 game but to suggest, as the collective result of the auction does, that he is not amongst the country’s best 25 batsmen is absurd.

    Even more absurd and offensive, in equal measure, is the suggestion that South Africa has only six black African cricketers good enough to be involved in the SA20. Some of the best coaches South Africa has ever produced are involved in this tournament and they may well have backed themselves to work with, and improve, certain squad players. But the IPL Franchises pride themselves on their ranks of analysts and statisticians and they had the final say on the preferred bidding list.

    The rock band moved in, kicked off its shoes, opened a case of beer, turned the music up and ordered pizza.

    (Some of) The Great Unsold:  

Temba Bavuma, Dean Elgar, Pieter Malan, Khaya Zondo, Sinethemba Qeshile, Pite van Biljon, Rudi Second, Andile Phehlukwayo, Heino Kuhn, Jason Smith, Glenton Stuurman, Gihan Cloete, Lutho Sipamla, Farhaan Behardien, Aaron Phangiso, Dane Paterson.