Is IPL slowly losing its South Africa charm?

Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle on the second day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 auction said that the number of arrivals from South Africa were restricted since they do not have a widely promoted T20 tournament. Thus the South African cricketers are losing out to Australia’s Big Bash League and the West Indies’ Caribbean Premier League (CPL) that have appealed more to the talent spotters.

The expert’s view is not without merit. If we see closely, not many new South Africans have impressed in the IPL over the last few years. In fact, the number of South Africans in the tournament has also gone down – from 17 in 2015 to 14 in 2016 to between nine and 10 in 2017 and 2018. A few are appearing consistently – the foremost among them being AB de Villiers, but except a few names like Quinton de Kock, David Miller and a JP Duminy who has made a comeback this year, no new hitter has really emerged from South Africa in the IPL.

On the bowling front, Lungi Ngidi was a surprise inclusion after his impressive debut against India in Tests. But nothing of that sort was seen when it came to the batters.

South Africa struggling with domestic cricket

The reason, as Bhogle indicated in his tweet, is worrying. South Africa, one of the strongest cricket-playing nations, is not doing great in managing their talent-supply mechanism and that is harming the country’s young prospects. The quantity of players produced is decent but because of procedural errors, not many of them are reaching where they should.

The biggest blow that South Africa’s T20 cricket has received in the recent times has been the postponing of the T20 Global League by no less than a year over a delay in securing title sponsorship and television rights deals.

The South African cricket authorities had tried to sell it as an equivalent of the IPL (three IPL owners have bought teams there as well) but the sudden exit of Haroon Lorgat, the former CEO of Cricket South Africa and the original visionary of the T20GL really derailed things (imagine had Lalit Modi failed even before the first ball of the IPL was bowled in 2008). This created a vacuum in South Africa cricket administration towards the end of 2017 and none other than the youngsters had to pay the price for it.

In South Africa, the international players have been playing irregularly for their respective franchises and with the delay in the much anticipated domestic T20 league, the best cricketers are bound to feel less attracted to play in their own country and appear elsewhere for the money. This will see the budding cricketers failing to rub shoulders with the best.

The quotas, currency, Brexit – all have hit SA cricket

Political reasons have also played part in this discouraging story. South Africa’s decision to introduce a quota system in cricket to help the “previously disadvantaged” people has impacted its game for many talented white players are exiting the scene because more and more blacks and coloured cricketers are getting preferences over them irrespective of the merit in their game. This, along with the weakening of the Rand vis-à-vis Pound and the possibility of the Brexit (UK’s decision to go out of the European Union), have further hit South African cricket.

While the weak currency is forcing players to withdraw from Tests and focus more on the money-minting T20 cricket elsewhere (given SA’s own failure to nurture a well-oiled T20 culture that the IPL has done in India), the possibility of Brexit has also made them rush to bag the lucrative Kolpak deals (under which anybody belonging from a country having a relevant association agreement with the EU to work there without discrimination) that would cease once the Brexit comes into effect as the county cricket agreements in England would also go out of the EU’s purview.

The writing is thus clearly on the wall: If SA cannot retain its white players who are fearing a Zimbabwe-like situation in their country’s cricketing sphere and are making plans to leave, it would leave the youngsters without the required guidance and skills to grow to the international standards. The ultimate victim will be South Africa’s cricket despite the fact it produces enough players at the grassroots.

The exit of players like Kyle Abbott (who was a victim of the quota policy in the 2015 World Cup despite being in a superb form) and Rilee Rossouw besides David Wiese, Simon Harmer, Colin Ingram, Rory Kleinveldt, Hardus Viljoen and many others who have opted for the Kolpak deals because of the trying situations at home which means the gap between South Africa’s domestic and international cricket is getting ever wider.

The rise of the Kagiso Rabadas and Lungi Ngidis might give a great satisfaction to those who prefer politics of colour, but for a game which is predominantly dominated by the whites – especially in batting – the trend is clearly upsetting.

The line of exodus is not over yet and tomorrow, if we see the likes of Hashim Amla and even de Villiers biding a permanent farewell to South Africa’s national team because of the sum effect of all the ill factors, God helps that country’s cricketing fortunes.

We, the Indian spectators, sincerely hope that people like de Villiers, de Kocks and Duminys turn on the heat this IPL as they are known to do. But we also need to pray that the country from where they come from should also get on its feet and keep scaling the heights in cricket. Otherwise, even the IPL could lose its Proteas charm one day.

Disclaimer: The views in this article reflect the author’s and not of the CricTracker entity.