Ashwin Desai spells out cricket woes

SOUTH African cricket faces particular challenges that emerge out of its historical legacy and the changing pace of the game.

This is what sociologist Ashwin Desai said in his professorial inauguration paper at the University of Johannesburg last Tuesday evening.

Desai’s comprehensive paper titled ‘Between the Late Cut and Late Capital’ delved in-depth into the history of cricket in recent decades and how it has become dominated by economic forces rather than the traditional gentleman’s game that it had been.

Reminiscing on the Hansie Cronje match-fixing saga and the lengthy saga of Gerald Majola who was eventually fired as chief executive of Cricket South Africa (CSA) over irregular IPL bonuses, Desai highlighted some of the challenges local cricket faces.

These include the lack of transformation to bring more black cricketers to the fore; developmental programmes at schools not being targeted correctly; a questionable board composition; and the increased power of the Board of Control for Cricket in India in the wake of the multi-million dollar success of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“Largesse from the 20 overs game has largely been handed over to India.

“One bonus has been the stake in the T20 Champions Tournament where South Africa has a 20% stake, Australia 30% and India the rest. But this does come at a price, whereby CSA has to slavishly follow Indian dictates,” Desai argued.

The outspoken writer and academic also hit out at South African players who, lured by lucrative contracts in series such as the IPL, were even sometimes willing to forego their duty to the national squad.

Retired Judge Chris Nicholson, who led the inquiry instituted by Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula that eventually led to Majola being fired, responded to Desai’s paper.

Lauding Desai’s paper, Nicholson said large companies had ‘hijacked’ cricket in India and the way to stop them was through mobilising people through social media.