- Cricket South Africa’s embarrassing U-turn in terms of hosting the Solidarity Cup is a sobering reminder sport cannot be anything less than paranoid in its return-to-play protocols.
- In all honesty, CEO Jacques Faul and director of cricket Graeme Smith’s reputation for no-frills efficiency is a curse when dealing with a jittery and securocratic government and requires more nuance.
- One key question is the wisdom of resuming competitive sport when the country still has not reached its peak of infections, something many other countries’ sporting codes dared not do.
Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) hasty retreat from hosting the Solidarity Cup, which would have introduced the world to the new 3 Team Cricket format, has only served to highlight again sport around the world still has not come to grips with the Covid-19 pandemic.
No one denies the return of competitive play is imperative, particularly in terms of keeping professional sport viable.
But two incidents last week were indicative of the perils of being too eager.
To his credit, Jacques Faul admitted to Sport24 the CSA was too ambitious in earmarking 27 June as the date for the Solidarity Cup.
However, it was nonetheless an embarrassing turn of events.
The association was, frankly, utterly naïve when it came to the realities of organising the event.
Faul, the CSA’s acting CEO, and Graeme Smith, the national director of cricket, are rightly lauded as no-frills go-getters who try, in general, to keep things as efficient and uncomplicated as possible.
Most of the time, that is a strength.
During a pandemic, it is something that can prove wholly counterproductive.
The CSA board is undoubtedly dysfunctional, but Faul and the rest of the organisers could have taken a leaf out of their book in terms of being procedurally cautious.
Sport is, whether we like it or not, intrinsically linked to the government at the moment.
And that means one must contend with the delicate, bureaucratic and even wayward way the respective departments have dealt with the virus.
After its appearance at a portfolio committee meeting last Friday, it became clear the CSA rather casually believed solid engagement with the sports department would translate into an automatic approval of sorts.
Instead, Nathi Mthethwa, the relevant minister, was visibly upset at Smith’s insistence to the media clearance had been given and noted the department still had to consult with its health counterpart.
Whatever the case, the CSA clearly underestimated the government’s need for inter-departmental consultation.
When you are dealing with a government rife with securocrats and factions that are jittery over the trajectory of the virus, it is almost unthinkable one would make such an oversight.
Surely a more cautious approach would have made the CSA realise hosting the event was a questionable course of action.
That, given the stiff (and even draconian) trends of lockdown, one simply could not assume a couple of hours of cricket would be enough to make an exception for the regulation that no sport can take place in a hotspot area.
It certainly did not help the CSA only announced the results of its Covid-19 testing less than a week before the event had to take place.
Allied to that is public perception.
While there would undoubtedly have been a substantial chunk of the public that supported the event taking place – because they have been starved of live sport – it is also likely the CSA would have been surprised by the amount of detractors.
South Africans love sport, but is it wise to commence with a live event when the country has not even reached its peak of infections yet?
Not even the notoriously financially inclined English Premier League remotely attempted to resume action during such a time.
Meanwhile, the PGA Tour’s policy is under scrutiny after Nick Watney’s positive test.
The American only withdrew from the past weekend’s RBC Heritage before the second round after complaining of symptoms on his way to the course.
Yet, as it turned out, Rory McIlroy had been chatting with him on the putting green, while Brooks Koepka was in contact at the parkade.
If Watney informed organisers prior to arrival – as the PGA tour said in a statement – why was he even allowed to come to the venue anyway?
What about his two playing partners during the first round, Luke List and Vaughn Taylor?
Novak Djokovic’s charity tournament, the Adria Tour, continues to be dogged by invited competitors testing positive.
These incidents provide timely reminders one cannot be too stringent (perhaps even paranoid?) when it comes to bringing sport back.
