Telford Vice's Blog, page 12

Replacing Rob Walter won’t be simple

Shukri Conrad is a canny coach. Is he canny enough not to want Rob Walter’s position?

Telford Vice / Cape Town

CSA timed the Rob Walter announcement perfectly. South Africa men’s white-ball teams were last in action in the first week of March. They won’t play again until midway through July. By then, South Africa will be WTC champions or runners-up and have played two Tests against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.

Tuesday afternoon was a good time to announce that your white-ball coach had resig...

Walter walks with World Cup on way

“While it’s time for me to step away, I have no doubt the team will continue to grow and reach even greater heights.” – Rob Walter

Telford Vice / Cape Town

WITH the men’s World Cup on its way to Southern Africa, the Proteas are suddenly in the market for a white-ball coach in the wake of Rob Walter’s shock resignation.

The next ODI World Cup will be played in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in October and November 2027, or in two-and-a-half years’ time. Winning the trophy — which S...

Test cricket is magical, but also a luxury only the privileged can enjoy properly

Tests are expensive to host and poorly attended. CSA could do better things with their limited resources than stage matches in a format fewer South Africans than ever care about.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

TONY de Zorzi scored a century for the first time in 23 innings of all shapes and sizes for Western Province in their first-class match against Boland at Newlands on Thursday. In the same game on Friday, WP’s Kyle Verreynne completed his first hundred in 20 trips to assorted creases.

...

Test cricket is the most important format? Not if you ask cricketers …

… most of whom consider T20 leagues on par with all sections of the international game.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

TRADITIONALISTS, look away now. Because less than half believe Test cricket is the most important format to play. Less than half of what? The players themselves.

It’s cricket, uncle Jim, but not as you knew it.

Of the 328 players, most of them internationals, who responded to the World Cricketers’ Association (WCA) global survey last year, only 49% thought Test cricket w...

Tristan Stubbs has hit the big time, but he’ll always be a smalltown kid

“I get back after play and we talk some nonsense for a while. But I’ll close my door at nine o’clock, and that’s it.” – Tristan Stubbs

Telford Vice / Cape Town

TRISTAN Stubbs is put together like a wandering albatross. That’s not to say he looks like one. Albatrosses don’t have his booming smile, wildly alive eyes, hectic hydra of hair or enthusiasm for all things cricket.

And they wouldn’t be seen dead wearing his moustache.

“He’s done a lot of things right on this tour; a lot of ...

International or franchise? Cricket’s existential question …

“Leagues are good if they help a country become a better cricketing nation. I don’t think a lot of leagues have that as their purpose. They are purely a money-making exercise.” – Dinesh Karthik

Telford Vice / Cape Town

SOUTH Africa’s Test series against Pakistan ended three days before the start of the SA20, which ended two days before the start of the Tri-Nations series in Pakistan, which ended five days before the start of the Champions Trophy, which ended 13 days before the IPL will s...

Would CSA have treated the Warriors differently if Robin Peterson was black?

This is not a scourge that needs to be stopped. Yet that is the only way this decision can be interpreted.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

ROBIN Peterson’s joke at a press conference at the Wanderers on February 8 landed well: “I’ve got to get back to the Warriors for 50-over cricket with nobody watching.” The roomful of reporters laughed heartily.

No-one’s laughing now. How Peterson must wish there had been absolutely no eyes on the Warriors’ opening game in the first division of the One-Da...

Colour-coded chickens of South Africa’s parallel scorecards come home to roost

The Warriors have access to the greatest repository of black talent in the country. Of all people, how could this happen to them?

Telford Vice / Cape Town

THE Warriors have been docked five points in the wake of a CSA’s men’s One-Day Cup match at Kingsmead on February 16 that they won by 126 runs. Four of those points have been awarded to their well-beaten opponents, the Dolphins.

That cost the Warriors a spot in Wednesday’s qualifier, which will be at Kingsmead between the Dolphins a...

Richard Pybus: the sunblock slathered scientist in the sweat stained floppy hat

“As a coach you need to understand the performance design process and the science that underpins this. And you need the coaching, communication, and design skills to be able to bring it together.” – Richard Pybus

Telford Vice / Cape Town

MOHAMMAD Rizwan had a problem. Not only could he not buy a run, he also couldn’t buy the chance to score runs. Karachi Kings played 23 games in the 2019 and 2020 editions of the PSL. Rizwan featured in only seven of them. It wasn’t difficult to understan...

Semi slips away from South Africa gradually, then suddenly

While Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen were batting, South Africa were winning. Then they weren’t …

Telford Vice / Cape Town

“VUMA! Vuma! Vuma!” It isn’t often any crowd chants Temba Bavuma’s name, or even a reasonable facsimile thereof. But the stands at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore aren’t filled by just any crowd.

These are people who, between the 1996 World Cup final and this edition of the Champions Trophy, didn’t see an ICC event up close and personal. Indeed, they didn’t see ...