The good, bad and 'Spidercam' of the SA20

Hits

Crowds: With attendances for domestic competitions or Test matches (on weekdays) minuscule, the thought was that the South African public had grown disillusioned with Cricket South Africa and the Proteas in general.

But they emerged in great numbers for a brand new tournament, packing out Newlands and impressively (and shockingly) Kingsmead.

The band at St George’s had Brian Lara playing the trumpet, they got burnt in Paarl, rowdy at SuperSport Park and blew too many whistles at the Wanderers. But it was all part of the fun.

With tickets reasonably priced — ranging from R20 if you brought a few chommies — it proved an attractive avenue of entertainment in tough economic times. 

Overseas Professionals: Phil Salt, Will Jacks and Adil Rashid at the Capitals, Jos Buttler at the Royals, Alzarri Joseph at the Super Kings, Jofra Archer and Rashid Khan at MI Cape Town lent the tournament the necessary sexiness it required.

Salt and Jacks may not be household names here but they quickly became favourites in Centurion.

Buttler and Rashid, as World Cup winners provided gravitas and hopefully some of the younger (and even older) local players sponged off their experiences. 

Proteas: CSA understandably copped criticism for cancelling the ODI series with Australia and thus putting in jeopardy the Proteas’ chances of automatic World Cup qualification, so that the nationally contracted players could be available for the SA20.

But ultimately that decision has paid dividends with the Proteas’ presence giving the competition the legitimacy it required. In the case of a former national captain, Faf du Plessis, it's also allowed a platform for his composed leadership to shine, and who knows, perhaps a path back into the national team. 

Quality: Graeme Smith made the point on a number of occasions before the tournament, that the action on the field had to be of a high standard.

That has been the case; there’s been sublime batting from Du Plessis, Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram, Buttler, Jacks and in the first game Dewald Brevis. Archer, Kagiso Rabada, Markram, Roelof van der Merwe, Eathan Bosch have delivered with the ball and the catching has been outrageous.

Jacks still owns the best grab of the competition while Jimmy Neesham occupies spots two and three on that list.

Competitiveness: The fact that the semifinal spots were only decided in the last match illustrated how close the competition was.

Three teams tied on four wins each. By the time Capitals and Royals met in that last league match, the tension was amped up to the stratosphere. The spread of talent across the six sides, ensured a strong competitive balance.

Kyle Mayers: Defied the laws of physics with a dismissal of Brevis in Cape Town — a genuine ‘how the hell did that happen?' moment.    

Misses

Stadium DJs: Cool. However some of them could do with a few lessons about the game itself.

You’re a bit late when you’re telling spectators that “coming on to bowl for the Pretoria Capitals, it’s Wayne Parnell”, when Parnell has already bowled two balls.

Some of the others talk waaaaay too much. The chaps at the Wanderers really don’t need to encourage spectators to “blow your whistles Joburg”, because they’d been doing so incessantly.

Scheduling: Look, this is a problem that should be resolved next year when there isn’t an ODI series to host or a Women’s World Cup taking place either, but the fact that the tournament stopped for a week, halted the momentum that was built up.

Having all the play-off matches at two venues — a result of the Women’s World Cup — has tested the hunger (and wallets/purses) of Gauteng watchers. 

The absence of a women’s competition: It was going to be difficult to do first up — given that there's a World Cup taking place.

But even in the documents outlining the creation of the tournament, a women’s SA20 is made to look like an afterthought.

That must not be allowed to happen. It’s OK to get the men’s one established but it can’t be to the detriment of the women’s game. 

SuperSport’s garden box: What is the point? Out there on the grass bank commentating for a couple of overs surrounded by a white picket fence.

It adds no value to the broadcast. Instead there was a comical scene during a match at the Wanderers where AB de Villiers had to be surrounded by security as he made his way into the ‘garden’  and then large parts of that crowd started watching or taking photos of him and ignored the game.

Better to have a ‘sideline’ reporter who is informative, insightful and humorous. 

‘Spidercam’: Get rid of it. 

Expectation: For Brevis, Tristan Stubbs — the most expensive player in the auction — Mitchell van Buuren, Shane Dadswell and a few other young players, the SA20 would have been a chastening experience.

Life at the top is hard and with all those expectations on you it isn’t easy to perform. They must take the lessons from this experience, they will be better players for it, and South African cricket too.

MI Cape Town: The MI stands for Mumbai Indians, and they performed in the kind of confused manner that suggested having two cities in their name, left them searching for an identity.

The batting was poor for the most part and the bowling, as head coach Simon Katich explained, lacked consistency. Could probably do with a seasoned overseas pro in the top order. 

Cricket SA: Feeling they were shortchanged because they weren’t getting thanked after matches, is just plain petty and does nothing to improve the organisation’s reputation with the South African public.

The members of that board of directors that must learn to grow up. There is something much bigger at stake here than them. Help the Proteas to win a World Cup and then you can line up to be thanked. 

Team of the tournament: Faf du Plessis, Will Jacks, Jos Buttler, Aiden Markram (MVP), Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Roelof van der Merwe, Sisanda Magala, Gerald Coetzee, Anrich Nortjé

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