S. Africa v. England Tests

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Jonty on the race issue:

'I literally was competing only with white players' - Jonty Rhodes

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/28529595/i-literally-was-competing-only-white-players-jonty-rhodes

'"I certainly benefited from the fact that I wasn't really competing with 50% of the population," Rhodes said... "I literally was competing only with the white players.

"You talk about white privilege and it raises a lot of heat and debate on social media but it is the case. I'm very aware of that. My cricketing statistics as a player were very average when I was selected.

"If I was competing with the rest of the country then possibly I wouldn't have been picked. And I would not have been diving around the field."
...

"We in South Africa have a legacy of apartheid," he said. "How many generations does it take to address that? You still have disadvantaged communities based on race. So they might have political freedom but they don't have economic freedom."

The process of transformation hasn't been straightforward, with several players, mostly white, giving up on playing for South Africa in order to take up lucrative Kolpak contracts in English county cricket. This has led to a depletion in the pool of talent and experience, particularly at domestic level, which may be one of the reasons behind South Africa's poor results over recent months.
...

"The biggest question for me is why in over 20 years have we not produced opportunities for young players in disadvantaged communities," he said. "It's not about racism. It's about equal opportunity and that's not happening.

"What rugby has done well is in building their structures, working in disadvantaged areas. Cricket has a lot to learn."'

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4th Test:

England won toss yet again, elected to bat.

4/192 (54.2). Stumps, day 1.

Drama aplenty! Selections, no-ball wicket, Stokes, rain, bad light, ...

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England 7/300 (82). Lunch.

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England 8/309 (84.5).

Buttler was out slogging.

[Donny]

9/330.

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Nortje has five wickets. The end of the England innings is nigh.

(Bess got five wickets last Test and was promptly dropped for this one -- horses for courses.)

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Broad pounds two 6s. This will be annoying for S. Africa. England approach 350.

[Donny]

9/361.

P/ship 43 ... so far.

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England now nearing 400.

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England out for exactly 400 (98.2).

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S. Africa in reply 0/17 (16).

I guess the message got through that Test cricket is not a slogathon.

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S. Africa 3/43 (25).




Dare I say it? Meanwhile, ABCdV is wasting his talent playing meaningless slogathons in Oz. I guess his accountant doesn't think they are meaningless. Sigh...

[K]

S. Africa 4/63 (30).

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S. Africa 6/88 (41.5). Stumps.

This is bad for cricket. The standard of the game is collapsing.
(Read Jonty's comments again at the top of the page.)

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The trouble with Kolpaks and KP

We want them here, working with us, not there, working for themselves

http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1213227/the-trouble-with-kolpaks-and-kp

"We won the rugby World Cup with a representative team... - but victory could make invisible our real social issues.

To know what 2020 looks like, cast your gaze towards Cricket South Africa. The organisation is wading through a leadership crisis and remains in financial crisis. The impact is most evident in the relationships they (no longer) have. Board members have resigned and sponsors have sailed away but it is the on-field connections that have suffered most, as players drain away from the system.
...

We can divide Kolpak players into two categories: the incumbents who decided to build futures elsewhere, and the veterans who saw an opportunity to cash in before the close of play. Both remind us of how much we are failing.

In the first group there are the likes of Kyle Abbott, Rilee Rossouw and Simon Harmer, who are seen to have used the South African system as nothing more than a stepping stone, sometimes even after committing to the country. "This is the place we want to play, this is place we want to perform and this is the place we really want to be tested," Abbott said in 2016, exactly a week before he tearfully told his team-mates he had signed a deal with Hampshire.
...

South Africa's then coach Russell Domingo put it as bluntly as this: "If that [Rossouw] had been a player of colour, everyone would have said it's a transformation thing." Rossouw was considered the next man in the Test side before he left with an insensitive goodbye. "We got an email from him off his iPhone telling us he's signed Kolpak," Domingo said. He spelt my name wrong for starters... I am bitterly disappointed in him."
...

And then there is Harmer. The self-declared "best offspinner in the world" was dropped from the Test side after a tough tour of India in 2015... Harmer signed a one-year deal with Essex and expressed a desire to improve and return. But in 2017 he signed a two-year extension and has all but begged to play for England since. ... That he is a much-improved player is obvious; that he knows it, more so.
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Among the second type of Kolpak are the likes of Dane Vilas, Heino Kuhn, Morkel, Hashim Amla, and soon, Philander. They are in the twilight years of their career so what could possibly be the problem with them going Kolpak? If you ask Faf du Plessis, the dearth of experience in the domestic system is hurting the development of future internationals and weakening the domestic game.
...

Lots of countries have a migrant economy but ours seems to be one of the few that is so dominated by sport. So if you really want to know what sucks about being South African in 2020, it's that 26 years after we sold the world our rainbow-nation success story, we now sell them our players as we continue to search for our pot of gold."