Enough with the ref-bashing now

The sentiment towards Rassie Erasmus and his criticisms of referees seems to be turning. Following the conscious decision this Saturday, it seems, by Supersport to stop the matchday pundits from discussing the ref, and the the Final Whistle guys' approach of rather concentrating on what the team did and didn't do, there has been a lot of "it's enough now" on social media today.

To be honest, I've done my share of whining - and let's face it, there have been decisions made that have cost the Springboks - but my eyes were opened when I had a chat with Gaby Pappas a couple of weeks ago. I've know Gaby for 25 years now. He runs the training of the referees in the Lions union and is a selfless servant of the game.

He is a worried man, he told me. They don't have enough refs in the province (neither do the other unions, he says). Qualified, experienced men are giving up because they've had enough of the abuse they are getting at clubs and schools, from officials, coaches, spectators, parents, players and even schoolboys.

And they cannot recruit enough newcomers to take their place. It's getting so bad that they are going to have to tell clubs and schools, sorry, we don't have a referee for you on Saturday.

What will happen then? When players at club and school level are turned away because the number of teams must be reduced because there's no-one to ref their games, the game is dying.

And it's not the performance of the international referees that is killing it.

When the director of rugby sends out the message that the referees are rubbish, and quite possibly cheating us, then it becomes OK for everyone else to believe that too, and take it out on the men who voluntarily turn up to handle the games at the vital lower levels.

That's why it's enough now.

The Saints water polo festival is fantastic, let's hope promotion-relegation doesn't spoil that

 

I spent Sunday at the St Stithians Water Polo Invitational Water Tournament, which is called the Saints Stayers tournament these days, because it doesn’t involve the departing matrics at the various schools and provides a first outing for the teams that are staying behind after they leave.

It’s proved to be a popular concept, having grown from a two-day affair involving mainly the local schools in the beginning, to one involving all the top teams in the country with, I was told, a sizable waiting list of schools clamouring to get in.

There is another national tournament on at the same time – the Inspire Cup – which is played at different venues for the boys and girls teams because there isn’t another school in Joburg that can accommodate 40 teams like Saints with its three pools can do.

The upshot was that for the weekend, the independent schools’ half-term break which makes it a good time of the year, Joburg is very much the epicentre of schools water polo in the country. Much as the city is the heart of schools rugby over Easter – and St Stithians was the instigator of that too.

I spoke to Bruno Fernandes who was the organiser of the event for the 15^th year in a row on Sunday. This was the 35^th national tournament he has run. He’s a bean-counter by profession and that precise thinking translates into an intricate programme design that goes beyond the usual ‘round-robin with cross pool playoffs’ formats and actually gives the 3^rd placed finishers another chance to get into the top eight playoff section. He has refined it over the years and it’s a work of art to see.

On a long weekend like the one just past, despite the rain and lightning interruption, it all finished on time and the girls and boys all played seven full, four-chukka matches at the end of it. That’s not something you get at any of the other big tournaments.

When I was told on Sunday that, from next year, there will be a promotion-relegation system in place, with the two boys and two girls team finishing last at the Saints tournament dropping down to the Inspire Cup and the top two teams from there coming up, my first reaction was disapproval.

I’ve always believed that making winning the main aim does not belong in school sport. I’m concerned that the dynamics will change for the teams striving for promotion, and for those fighting relegation. I agree that these concepts are part of life and children shouldn’t be shielded from them, but my experience is that when wining becomes the all-important thing all manner of evils follow.

School sport isn’t about winning and losing, so the strength of a team shouldn’t be relevant when it comes to invitations to tournaments. Our school sport has always been organised on traditional lines, and long-term traditional relationships shouldn’t be ditched because a team is going through a lean patch.

On the other hand, I agree that lopsided scorelines don’t do anyone any good and it is true that the players at schools that haven’t been included at tournaments like the Saints Stayers, historically, and who have worked hard to reach a level which deserves recognition at a prestige event like this, also have a case.

I guess it’s going to depend on how promotion-relegation is managed. There have been some pretty ugly incidents in other codes and competitions where it exists.

I hope it works out. Everything else about the tournament is fantastic, it shouldn’t be spoiled by upping the stakes and making winning too important.

The time cricket festival is done, but the lessons will live on

 

The St David’s Fasken Time Cricket Festival ended on Sunday and it was a run fest.

There were no fewer that 18 centuries scored in the four days, over 50 half centuries, and literally thousands of runs in total.

The conditions played a big part in that. The wickets were flat and lifeless, having seen no natural moisture since April, the outfields were dry and threadbare. So, the bowlers got no help, and any shot beating the infield went to the boundary.

The two-day “time” format must, however, get credit too. There’s so much limited overs cricket played these days that it would have been a welcome change for the quality batsmen to get themselves in and select their strokes without the pressure of having to get on with it.

The idea of giving schoolboys the opportunity to play longer format cricket comes from Dave Nosworthy, director of cricket at St David’s, and he is unwavering in his belief that real cricket lessons are learnt far more effectively in longer games.

I think there was enough evidence on show over the weekend to show that is true. Sure, the second round of games all ended in draws, which could be seen as a reflection on the captaincy. At lunch on the final day all the games were poised for sporting declarations and exciting run chases. And there were one or two teams that were prepared to take a risk, but in the end, I guess, four days of toiling under an unseasonably hot Joburg sun, in their 1^st games of the season, took its toll and no-one had the energy left to produce fireworks at the end of it.

But, as I heard said from many quarters over the four days, the event was about learning more than results and there were lessons learnt in that final session too. I came across an example of that while snapping away at one of the games. I got into a conversation with two parents who told me that when the team were complaining about the size of the target set for them and the number of overs they were given, the coach told them that it was of their own doing. If they wanted to make a game of it, he said, they should have bowled the opponents out earlier, and not dropped so many catches.

That’s a lesson you don’t learn in T20 cricket – and the schools their sons are at are the national champions in that format of cricket.

The wizened cricket professional, or the teacher equivalent of him, plays a vital role in ensuring that those lessons are learned. There were a number of those sorts of men at St David’s over the weekend. Men who have been around for years and who probably taught the bright-eyed youngsters who are coaching the teams now how to play. I saw, for example Mike Bechet at the Jeppe games, Adi Norris was there with St John’s, Jeff Levin at St David’s, Wim Jansen at St Stithians and the Noordheuwel pair, Werner Jacobs and Morne Heunis. And Nos, of course, was talking to all the players and all the coaches, all the time.

Cricket is the greatest educational game and it’s having those sorts of educators around that makes it so.

 

Appreciating your opponents is part of the great game

 

Someone told me that as we get older, the time we have spent watching cricket is subtracted from our age. He’d read it somewhere, he said. You can imagine one of the great philosopher reporters of the game, Neville Cardus or John Arlott, perhaps, or even our own Charles Fortune, saying that.

I’ve tried, but I can’t find the reference. I think it could be true though, and I was reminded of  it when I spotted Harry Shapiro at the side of the field at the St David’s Fasken Time Cricket Festival on Friday. He’s 82 now, he told me, and still coaching and running clinics for coaches. I remember doing the Cricket SA level 1 coaching qualification in my first year of teaching some time during the last century and the bit about teaching spin bowling was handled by Harry.

It was good to see him. When I asked him how he’s doing, his response was to criticise the field placings in the game he was watching, “that’s a T20 field, not a two-day one,” he said. That’s the response you’d expect from someone who has spent a lifetime in and around the game.

Few games have more customs, quirks and traditions than cricket has. A unique one is to show appreciation for what your opponents do. Applauding milestones reached is an example, as is a batsman acknowledging when he has been beaten by a really good ball, and fielders going across to congratulate a batsman when he leaves the field after a good knock.

You see less of that on TV now in these times of cricket on steroids, but there was enough of it on show over the first two days of this festival to show that it’s still being taught at the sorts of schools that are playing here.

And to reinforce that lesson, the organisers have introduced a great custom. “Man of the match” awards don’t really belong in a festival, but one of cricket’s peculiarities is that it’s a team game made up of individual performances, and those individuals should be recognised and encouraged.

So, the thinking was, why not let the players of the opposing team decide who the standout player in the other team was? The Fasken Purple Cap is the result. At the end of each day’s play the captain presents a cap, to be worn the next day, to the player who has impressed his team the most.

You can tell by the body language at those hand-overs that it’s something the players are really enjoying.

It’s been two long days at the cricket already, and there are still two to come. But at least I can subtract them from my age as I get ever older.

 

It's about sitting together in the shade, as much as anything else

 

The idea of playing two-day cricket matches is something new to the 180-odd boys who are at St David’s Marist for the Fasken Time cricket festival. I overheard two of the coaches, both ex-players, discussing how these players won’t get to experience it again, unless they get to the semi-pro level of the game.

Cricket is unique among team games because in no other one do you get to sit around with your team mates for such extended periods, watching the action. This two-day format has increased that time period, it’s a longer opportunity to bond, and speak the trash that cricketers do.

And education, in the end, is all about setting up situations in which young people can learn lessons. The best educators are there, guiding the conversation – lightly – but letting their charges learn for themselves.

That’s cricket, isn’t it? I walked around the grounds at St David’s on Thursday – and you don’t realise how big the Inanda campus is until you tramp from one end of it to the other – and saw at every field the batting teams sitting together in a shady place, ribbing each other, shouting encouragement at the batsmen out there and generally soaking up the socalisation lessons that the game teaches. And sitting with them, slightly to the side, were the coaches, smiling to themselves, butting in from time to time, and quietly teaching life lessons in a unique way.

That’s why it’s worthwhile going to the trouble and expense of setting up an event like this one. As much as learning the cricketing skills and strategy that the longer game teaches, the boys spend hours together learning from each other, and from the men who are with them who, remember, believe it’s important to give up so much of their time to coach them.

The St David’s headmaster, Mike Thiel, at the festival opening breakfast on Thursday, bemoaned the fact that football has appropriated the name “the beautiful game”, he suggested that cricket should call itself “the great game”. He’s not far wrong.

 

There are lessons to be taught and learned

 

The Fasken Time cricket festival at St David’s Marist was last held in 2019 and the results of the, then, 10 two-day games broke more or less even between results and draws.

 Time cricket, in essence, means that the game is limited only by time – a minimum of 110 overs must be bowled in a day and the game time will be extended to accommodate that – but the results of the matches will be determined by the target set and reached, or not reached, at the end of the two days.

 Under those circumstances drawn games are a distinct possibility. Last time out, if memory serves, some of the draws were due to poor captaincy: sides batted too long and declarations came too late to make a win possible. Some of the draws were honourable, though. That can happen when a team is in trouble and through grit and application their batsmen manage to stick around and avoid defeat.

 That’s one of the things that make cricket unique. Two days of play can end in a draw, and that can be really exciting. This festival follows this format because the belief is that the players can learn all sorts of lessons – cricket and life lessons – by being exposed to those sorts of situations.

 At the end of the day, this is school sport, and all school sport should be educational, first, foremost, throughout the contest and after the game is won or lost. And I don’t think any other game provides as many opportunities for lessons to be taught and learned as cricket does.

 Education is about building character – and that’s what cricket’s all about. It’s why the Aims and Format for this festival includes in its introduction the following lines:

 "We ask that Coaches and Managers understand that we encourage some really tough and ruthless cricket – but remembering to always play the game in the appropriate spirit whilst always respecting one’s opposition and putting the game first. Lastly, we encourage teams to play it hard in the middle – but knowing full well that there is absolutely no reason to cross any line."

 Cricket, I think, is the only game that is a metaphor for fair play and decent behaviour. Say the words “it’s just not cricket” and most people will know what you mean. It’s an expression of disapproval used when the rules have been broken and, in its narrow and wider meanings, that refers to the actual laws and the unwritten spirit of the law.

 Take the “mankad”, for instance. It refers to a batsman being run out when he ventures outside of the crease at the bowler’s end. According to the laws, he is out of his ground and certainly out. But the spirit of cricket requires the bowler to warn him once before removing the bails. To do otherwise is just not cricket.

 Any teacher or coach responsible for the running of a school sport programme who doesn’t have in mind that the most important task is to teach children to behave honourably and according to the values and ethics that are included in both the laws of the game and the ephemeral “spirit of the game” is not, in my opinion, doing his or her job.

And a cricket coach who teaches a bowler to mankad a batsman, or for that matter, tells a batsman that it’s OK to steal a yard backing up because there’s no chance that he will be mankaded, is out of line.

 Playing two two-day games over the next few days will present many opportunities for teaching young people to go out into the world, doing good because it’s the right thing to do, because it’s just not cricket to do otherwise.

Fixtures

1^st game September 1 and 2 - Jeppe vs Waterkloof (Baytop Oval, St Stithians), St David’s vs Paul Roos (La Valle Oval, St David’s), Maritzburg College vs KES (Mc Gregor Oval, St David’s), St Stithians vs Lions XI (Dlamini Oval, St Stithians), St Johns vs Clifton (Gier Oval, St David’s), St Andrew’s vs Noordheuwel (La Rosey Oval, St David’s).

2nd game September 3 and 4 - KES vs St Andrews (Baytop Oval, St Stithians), St David’s vs Clifton (La Valle Oval, St David’s), St Stithians vs Maritzburg College (Dlamini Oval, St Stithians), Noordheuwel vs Lions XI (Gier Oval, St David’s), St Johns vs Waterkloof (Mc Gregor Oval, St David’s), Jeppe vs Paul Roos (La Rosey Oval, St David’s).

Why 2-day cricket games are good for schoolboys

 

The Fasken St David’s Time Cricket Festival is back after a two-year Covid-induced break, and it has been increased to 12 teams – 11 schools and a Central Gauteng Lions Invitation XI.

The idea was the brainchild of Dave Nosworthy, director of cricket at St David’s and it started off with six teams, playing two two-day matches each. There has been such a demand to play in it that they have increased the numbers and additional fields at St Stithians are being used this year.

The games take place on September 1 and 2; and September 3 and 4.

You have to ask, given the popularity of the shorter formats of the game, and the convenience that goes with getting them over and done with quickly, why it’s wise to have schoolboy games that last two whole days, and why so many schools are eager to play in them?

There are all sorts of good reasons for exposing schoolboy cricketers to declaration cricket, and to get them playing longer forms of the game, says Nosworthy.

“The batsmen,” he says, “need to learn to spend more time at the crease, without the limited-overs restraints. The bowlers need to be able to bowl longer spells, and be brought back later on. The players need to get a feel for proper cricket, with matches that go on, day after day.”

Limited-overs cricket has become quite formulaic, Nosworthy says. You do certain things at certain stages of the game and there is no room for innovation, and no requirement to apply cricket thinking to unfolding situations on the field.

“It has shown in the performance of our U19 teams in international ‘Youth Tests’ that the players lack the skills required in the longer game,” he said.

“Exposure to time cricket is important to let young players experience what it’s like to bat all day or being on your feet two whole days,’ he said.

“Captains must learn that sometimes you have to be prepared to lose in order to win. They need to be patient, to be brave and to set targets that give them a chance of winning. Those lessons that can’t be taught in limited-overs cricket.”

The 12 captains and 150 odd players that will be at St David’s next week are entering the unknown. It’s going to be a great learning experience for them, and a lot of fun – guaranteed.

Fixtures

1^st game September 1 and 2 - Jeppe vs Waterkloof (Baytop Oval, St Stithians), St David’s vs Paul Roos (La Valle Oval, St David’s), Maritzburg College vs KES (Mc Gregor Oval, St David’s), St Stithians vs Lions XI (Dlamini Oval, St Stithians), St Johns vs Clifton (Gier Oval, St David’s), St Andrew’s vs Noordheuwel (La Rosey Oval, St David’s).

2nd game September 3 and 4 - KES vs St Andrews (Baytop Oval, St Stithians), St David’s vs Clifton (La Valle Oval, St David’s), St Stithians vs Maritzburg College (Dlamini Oval, St Stithians), Noordheuwel vs Lions XI (Gier Oval, St David’s), St Johns vs Waterkloof (Mc Gregor Oval, St David’s), Jeppe vs Paul Roos (La Rosey Oval, St David’s).