Contracts cause no strife

May 6, 2003 by neil manthorp

The new list of nation­al­ly con­tract­ed play­ers, due to be finalised before the end of the month, is not caus­ing the anx­i­ety and dis­pute many believed it would.

In fact, there is so much agree­ment between nation­al coach Eric Simons, selec­tion con­venor Omar Hen­ry and the UCB chief exec­u­tive Ger­ald Majo­la that the issue will not be referred to the Nation­al Crick­et Committee.

The NCC, which was formed as a trou­ble-shoot­ing mech­a­nism to address many of the trou­bled areas of the game after the dou­ble-head­ed thrash­ing by the Aussies, was due to dis­cuss who was ‘in’ and who was ‘out’ at a meet­ing on May 14.

But con­sen­sus was reached with remark­able ease between Majo­la, Hen­ry and Simons fol­low­ing the nation­al team’s return from Bangladesh and now the nation’s elite play­ers could know with­in sev­en to 10 days whether they will be amongst the UCB’s retained players.

Six play­ers will be enter­ing the sec­ond year of two-year con­tracts so they may con­tin­ue to breathe eas­i­ly for anoth­er 12 months — or 11, actu­al­ly, because the plan is to revert to April 30 for con­tract renewals next year.

Those lucky play­ers are: Shaun Pol­lock, Jacques Kallis, Her­schelle Gibbs, Makhya Nti­ni, Mark Bouch­er and Paul Adams.

There will also be (or should be) five def­i­nite depar­tures from the list: Allan Don­ald, Jon­ty Rhodes, Mor­nan­tau Hay­ward, Roger Telemachus and, sad­ly, Steve Elworthy.

The UCB’s finance men have set a lim­it of 20 for con­tract­ed play­ers and there are at least anoth­er six cer­tain­ties to join those already signed up. They are Graeme Smith, Neil McKen­zie, Boeta Dip­pe­naar, Jacques Rudolph, Robin Peter­son and Nicky Boje.

Mar­tin van Jaarsveld, cur­rent­ly with­out con­tract, scored three con­sec­u­tive cen­turies for SA ‘A’ against Aus­tralia ‘A’ — if he isn’t a prospect worth invest­ing in then nobody is. Con­tract. That’s 13.

What about Mfu­neko Ngam who spent the whole of last year draw­ing a con­tract­ed salary from the UCB while he was injured — is he worth per­sist­ing with? It seems point­less to adopt a pol­i­cy of long-term invest­ment if you’re going to aban­don it after one bad year. Con­tract. 14.

Ash­well Prince? Con­tract. 15. Andrew Hall? Con­tract. 16.

The same could be said of the pol­i­cy regard­ing Justin Ontong although it can be eas­i­ly argued that the tal­ent­ed Bolan­der has had enough oppor­tu­ni­ties to impress and has failed to take them. No contract.

Charl Langeveldt? A change of province from Boland to Bor­der shows ini­tia­tive and ambi­tion and that has been allied to a phys­i­cal deter­mi­na­tion. He has lost weight and is bowl­ing with more pace and swing than ever. Con­tract. 17.

Now the hard ques­tions start. If Lance Klusen­er wasn’t worth a place in either the Test squad to Bangladesh or the ‘A’ squad to Aus­tralia, can he real­ly be worth a contract?

If Eric Simons is going to suc­ceed in shap­ing the future of the game in his image, he can­not afford to enter­tain a man who sends the mes­sage to juniors that self-serv­ing train­ing and prac­tise sched­ules are fine and that crick­et is a job, first and fore­most, in which pas­sion and pride are irritations.

Is Gary Kirsten worth con­tract­ing for anoth­er year now that he’s a Test play­er only? Now that Smith and Gibbs are the estab­lished open­ers, is there room for Gaz­za? A five-Test tour of Eng­land, plus the chance that Gibbs may be moved to the mid­dle order, plus the fact that Kirsten could come ‘cheap’ because he won’t play one-day­ers, means he’ll be offered anoth­er year. 18.

A few days ago I sug­gest­ed that 18 was suf­fi­cient but now I realise that I had fall­en prey to a nasty ten­den­cy for com­men­ta­tors to be hard­est against those they are clos­est to. If a bowler from South Africa is named man of the series in a tour­na­ment in the sub­con­ti­nent, makes telling con­tri­bu­tions in his debut Test, acts like an over­dose of via­gra for team morale and is the fittest mem­ber of the squad, is he not worth some invest­ment? Just because Alan Daw­son designed my gar­den in Cape Town and is 33 years old, does not mean he doesn’t deserve a con­tract. Go Dawsy!

If any­one out­side that 19 plays six ODIs or two Tests he auto­mat­i­cal­ly becomes eli­gi­ble for a con­tract pro­vid­ed the nation­al selec­tors approve the move. That means Quin­ton Friend, Charl Willough­by (who should def­i­nite­ly tour Eng­land), Tha­mi Tsolek­ile, Justin Kemp, Albie Morkel, Dewald Pre­to­rius and Ger­ald Dros can all make an impres­sion and be wel­comed into the fold full-time.

Cur­rent Contracts:
A+
Shaun Pollock
Mark Boucher
Jacques Kallis
Her­schelle Gibbs
Gary Kirsten
Lance Klusener

A
Paul Adams
Nicky Boje
Allan Donald
Makhaya Ntini
Jon­ty Rhodes

B
Boeta Dippenaar
Mor­nan­tau Hayward
Neil McKenzie
Mfu­neko Ngam

C
Steve Elworthy
Justin Ontong
Ash­well Prince
Jacques Rudolph
Graeme Smith
Roger Telemachus

Like­ly new Contracts:
A+
Graeme Smith
Shaun Pollock
Jacques Kallis
Her­schelle Gibbs
Makhaya Ntini

A
Paul Adams
Nicky Boje
Neil McKenzie
Mark Boucher

B
Gary Kirsten
Boeta Dippenaar
Andrew Hall
Jacques Rudolph
Mar­tin van Jaarsveld
Robin Peterson

C
Mfu­neko Ngam
Ash­well Prince
Charl Langeveldt
Alan Dawson