Rather than be seen as “another World Cup failure” the Proteas’ run to the semifinal at this year’s tournament in India should be viewed as one where Temba Bavuma’s team re-established itself as an international force.
“To maintain the revenue the Proteas (men’s team) generates, to negotiate broadcast deals and bilateral series, you need to be one of the best teams in the world and at the World Cup, SA proved it was,” said Andrew Breetzke, the CEO of the SA Cricketers Association.
While not saying that a failure to reach the final four would have sunk the sport in the country, Breetzke outlined how issues off the field had dominated the cricket discourse. “We were coming off a low base. It had been five years of court cases, whether that was SACA taking CSA to court, the Social Justice and Nation Building exercise, disciplinary hearings against Mark Boucher and Graeme Smith, concerns about governance, finances ... finally at the World Cup it felt like playing cricket was important again.”
Coming into a season in which a high profile tour by the game’s wealthiest and most popular team, India, will dominate conversation in the next month, SA’s run to the semifinals was timely.
A feel-good factor had already been created at the start of the year with the successful hosting of the SA20 — South African cricket’s own addition to the T20 league landscape. Then the women’s team qualified for the final of the T20 World Cup, while Bavuma’s side also earned an automatic berth at the Cricket World Cup, meaning it avoided having to go through a qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe.
Having earned the last spot in India, the Proteas then won seven out of nine round-robin matches, finishing second on the table behind the hosts. It was SA’s best World Cup performance since 1999.
Breetzke stressed that the sport’s changing landscape globally, gave the run to the semifinals another important context. “With the way that cricket is going, the national team has almost become like a franchise side,” he said. “The ICC is basically an events company that has scheduled tournaments in every year of the current broadcast deal.”
The deal lasts until 2031 and includes a reincarnation of the Champions Trophy, the next edition of which takes place in 2025 and the 2027 ODI World Cup, that will be hosted in SA.
It means that, along with the number of T20 leagues around the world, there is very little room to negotiate bilateral series, and countries will thus put a premium on who they would like to host. With the Proteas having performed as well as they did at the World Cup, along with several outstanding individual displays, including from new faces like Gerald Coetzee, they are a more enticing and thus attractive opponent to host.
We’ve got to work on our depth and aim to get to a point where India is now, and the ability to have almost three different teams.
— Cricket SA CEO Pholetsi Moseki
Breetzke explained how the changing landscape demanded a fresh outlook from CSA. “It needs to ask itself how it will manage its franchise team. There needs to be a clear strategy about how it wants to move the Proteas forward.”
Cricket SA’s CEO, Pholetsi Moseki, said the organisation has to be more flexible and adapt speedily to the changes taking place in the sport. “We’ve got to work on our depth and aim to get to a point where India is now, and the ability to have almost three different teams,” he explained.
Of course that requires huge financial support. South Africa cannot sniff the income that India gets. In the latest breakdown of funds from the last ICC distribution, India is set to earn more than R4.5bn, while CSA’s cut is about R490m.
That difference is stark and given part of the distribution model is based on performance on the field, it makes what the Proteas did at the World Cup that much more important.
It is critical for CSA to build on that success. There is little to suggest the next few years will be stable in cricket and with restructuring of contracts set to be a hot topic, ensuring the players are happy and that the Proteas are consistent challengers at ICC events is imperative.
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