Telford Vice's Blog, page 2

South Africa to hit the ground spinning in Pakistan

“If you want to use home-ground advantage to help your team win a game of cricket you should be able to do so.” – Aiden Markram

Telford Vice / Cape Town

AIDEN Markram has a blunt message for Pakistan’s spin doctors: Bring it. We’re ready. The basis for his bullishness will be tested next week in South Africa’s series against the Asian giants.

“If it’s your home game you can pretty much prepare whatever pitch you’d like,” Markram told a press conference on Monday. “So there are definit...

Insult no longer part of injury

“Eddie Moore has been ruled out of the match after sustaining an injury during the first innings. Under the new CSA playing conditions Joshua van Heerden has been named as a replacement and will take part in the remainder of the match.” – hark, a revolution.

Telford Vice / Newlands

CRICKET quietly caught up with modern sport on a bright, breezy spring day at an almost empty Newlands on Saturday. The revolution was not televised; not much domestic cricket is on the box these days. Instead...

What the hell happened, South Africa?

“The top order failed and the middle order failed on the same day. That happens in cricket sometimes.” – Laura Wolvaardt

Telford Vice / Cape Town

WE see close games that could be won or lost by either team. We see games won convincingly. We see downright one-sided games. We don’t often see, in games involving sides of the quality of South Africa and England, what happened in their women’s World Cup opener in Guwahati on Friday.

The South Africans were bowled out for 69. Only twice in ...

England loom large for South Africa

“I’m not worried about the stats and what has happened before. We need to be present.” – Chloe Tryon

Telford Vice / Cape Town

LOOK through one end of the women’s World Cup binoculars and England are clear favourites to win their match against South Africa in Guwahati on Friday. Look through the other end and another picture comes into focus.

England have prevailed in seven of the last eight matches between the sides in the format. South Africa have won only four of their most recent 2...

Wys ons jou mace

“Like I always used to tell my daughters, better late than pregnant.” – Shukri Conrad on the lengthy lag between South Africa winning the WTC and showing off the mace to their compatriots.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

THE most important figure in South Africa’s ICC mace parade in Cape Town on Friday wasn’t any of the players or the coaching staff. Who was he?

“Craig.”

Last name?

“Steyn.”

As in Dale?

“Yes. That’s my middle name.”

Craig Steyn is a fit man in his early 20s dre...

Big fish De Kock jumps back into South Africa’s boat

“When someone of Quinny’s calibre expresses a desire to play for South Africa and he’s fully on board, who am I to stop him?” – Shukri Conrad

Telford Vice / Cape Town

QUINTON de Kock is back from the international wilderness. Having last played for South Africa in June last year, on Monday he was named in the squads for seven white-ball games to be played in Namibia and Pakistan from October 11 to November 8.

Infamously, De Kock retired from Test cricket in December 2021 after the fir...

SA20, India help CSA turn tide

Under chief executive Pholetsi Moseki, CSA appear to be rebuilding trust in their previously battered brand.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

CSA declared a net profit of USD13,723,600 for the 2024-25 fiscal year at their annual meeting in Johannesburg on Saturday. That’s almost three-and-a-half times smaller than the previous year’s profit, but a significant improvement on the losses of USD6,861,800 to USD12,743,342 — using current exchange rates — they suffered for three years before that.

...

On a clear day in Sea Point, you can see cranes forever

“I want to do everything I can to see this wonderful city and its community be successful, but there are signs the infrastructure is beyond the number of new developments.” – Mark McKeon, The Glen Boutique Hotel owner

Telford Vice / Cape Town

THE sound of Sea Point used to be seagulls screaming and gaartjies yelling “Cape Town!” from the windows of CBD-bound taxis. If you had the money to live on the cliffs that plunge from Victoria Road, you could hear the crash of the Atlantic Ocean ag...

Mace gleams through South Africa’s strange days

“You never like losing and you don’t like losing by big margins. It certainly hurts the ego and the feelings.” – Aiden Markram

Telford Vice / Cape Town

THESE are strange days indeed for South Africa’s men’s team. They suffered their biggest defeats in both white-ball formats in the space of four days this month, which followed what was then their heaviest ODI hiding last month.

But they have come home from Australia and England with only one loss from the four rubbers they played in t...

T20I decider could drown

“It was an abject performance; really not good enough.” – Shukri Conrad after the Manchester mauling.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

A “farce”, as Harry Brook rightly called it, at soggy Sophia Gardens on Wednesday. A hurricane of English runs at sunny Old Trafford on Friday. And here we are with a decider on our hands at Trent Bridge on Sunday.

Or maybe not. The weather forecast (see below) suggests the only decision that will be made is when to call the game off.

That would be a shame....