When is 'Rest', rest...?

And when is a 'mystery spinner' a mystery?

    Afghanistan’s 2-1 ODI series win against South Africa was the first time they’d beaten a top five team in a bilateral series. But South Africans who were indignant that the loss came against Afghanistan were distracted. They have been a top-tier team for years.

    The truth is, being bowled out for 106 and 134 in the first two games would have been inexcusably poor against anyone, Australia and India included. But what made it worse for many Proteas followers was the messaging about the composition of the team.

    Kagiso Rabada was (actually) resting but David Miller, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi were spending their rest time playing in the Caribbean Premier League, earning dollars.

    Building a broader base of international players and not relying on the same match-winners is an important course of action but so is the communication. Perhaps the word ‘rest’ should be dropped. And if ‘money’ is too awkward to talk about, just say the player was unavailable (if he was) or that his replacement was being given game time. 

    The international status of two other players in the Caribbean remains unclear. Head coach, Rob Walter, still has ‘no idea’ of Quinton de Kock’s T20 plans having retired from 50-over cricket after the last World Cup while Anrich Nortje appears to have opted for an international sabbatical. But we can’t be sure when, or if, that might end.

    The official language from Walter and CSA is that every international match is as important as the one which precedes and follows it, but that’s patently not the case. And the potential damage to the Proteas brand and reputation of being thrashed when not picking anything close to the best team should not be discounted.

    There is, emphatically, nothing wrong with earning lots of money playing a domestic league and missing an inconsequential bilateral series, or of being uncertain about your international future. The ‘problem’ lies in how the conundrums are relayed to impressionable supporters of the national team. There is no place for coyness.

    In New Zealand it has become commonplace for the country’s biggest stars and best players to skip some international fixtures and even decline national contracts to ‘maximise their earning potential’ in the IPL and other leagues. National treasure, Kane Williamson, became the latest to turn down a national contract in order to play in Durban in the SA20 where he will be handsomely paid.

    But in every instance (except maybe, Jimmy Neesham) the players have gone out of their way to reiterate their loyalty to the Black Caps and New Zealand Cricket has played open cards about their inability to match or even mitigate against the fees on offer from T20 leagues. The messaging has been crystal clear. Not all matches are equal, players are welcome to make themselves available for the most important international fixtures – but they are not guaranteed selection.

*   Another apparently tricky issue in recent weeks, other than the moral one regarding playing against Afghanistan where the Taliban are brutally suppressing the human rights of women and girls, was whether next month’s Test series scheduled in Bangladesh would be going ahead following the political unrest and rescheduling of the Women’s T20 World Cup which was also to have been played there in October.

    A requested update on the situation from CSA has gone unanswered for 24 days at the time of writing. Fortunately, I can provide an update from the Bangladesh Cricket Board: A four-man delegation from CSA, including SACA’s new President, Farhaan Behardien, was recently in the country to inspect facilities and review security arrangements.

    “As much as I could gather from their conversations, they are very satisfied,” said the BCB’s cricket operations manager, Shahriar Nafees. “They had concerns about the situation, so they came to observe the current conditions and how we will maintain security protocols. South Africa has never sent a delegation before, but after we lost the hosting rights to the Women's T20 World Cup, they came to review the arrangements," said Nafees, who was also part of the team which visited Chattogram and Dhaka where the Test will be played.

    The Proteas are, apparently, due to land in the country on October 16 with the two World Test Championship fixtures due to start on October 21 and 29. So now you know. Monsoon rains permitting, I suspect that will be a gripping contest, literally. A trial by spin. In which South Africa will not start as favourites. 

* “It's hard to explain the toughness of the conditions in the subcontinent and the different nature of the spin bowlers, but we faced a mystery spinner (Allah Ghazanfar) in game one who we hadn't seen before…” Walter said after the Afghanistan series was lost, preferring to talk technical rather than personnel.

    “We were exposed to it and we were unable to deal with it. But the only way to get better is through exposure. So hopefully that will be the starting point of our next-in-line guys being better at playing spin.” Wiaan Mulder, who made a half-century in the first game to prevent his team being bowled out for 60 or 70, said they had not seen any footage of Ghazanfar who claimed 3-20.

    Ghazanfar played in the Under-19 World Cup, in South Africa, six months ago and bowled 40 overs. The tournament was televised. An analysis blip?