Divided Cricket South Africa Board needs to be wary of its priorities

Johannesburg - There was a line doing the rounds on Thursday about trying to keep up with all the absentees in English cricket at the moment.

The England and Wales Cricket Board currently has no chairman, no head coach (for the men’s national team) and no director of cricket. It was easy to snigger, until one realised South African cricket may be stuck with something similar pretty soon. For one, there is no full-time chief executive officer for Cricket SA; there may soon be no director of cricket if Graeme Smith’s contract – which expires at the end of March – isn’t extended; and, there’ll be no head coach for the men’s national team if many on the current board get their way.

On Monday, the CSA T20 Challenge starts in Gqeberha. There are 34 Proteas dotted around the eight teams, including household names such as De Kock, Miller and Phehlukwayo. Dewald Brevis, the hottest young player to emerge from the Under-19 World Cup, is in the Titans squad. There are a host of other young players throughout the competition, desperate to make an impression in a competition that will be broadcast on television. But note the tournament’s name: CSA T20 Challenge. No sponsor has attached its name to the competition. That has been the case for the past four domestic T20 tournaments CSA has put on, two of those being the Mzansi Super League. The MSL was going to take place with a sponsor this season, but was called off because of the Covid pandemic.

The last time the domestic T20 tournament had a sponsor was 2017, when RAM gave its backing. The pandemic aside, it is a very bad outlook for cricket – one of the big three sports in the country – when what is supposed to be a money-maker cannot attract sponsors, even with so many Proteas and