Telford Vice's Blog, page 6

Protea fire still burns bright

“Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel all retired around the same time, and everybody forecast that South African cricket would need another five years or so to be really competitive again.” – senuran Muthusamy

Telford Vice / Oujda

GRAEME Smith came up with the idea, and it’s no less true today than it was then. The protea — the flower, not the cricketer — needs fire to disperse its seeds. Without the adversity caused by a blaze, it cannot regenerate. “Protea Fire” be...

Far better Moroney than some damn fool suit

“His deep understanding of the game, combined with decades of experience in talent identification and selection across various levels, makes him the ideal person for the job.” – Enoch Nkwe on Patrick Moroney’s appointment as selection convenor.

Telford Vice / Oujda

PATRICK Moroney isn’t often seen in a jacket and tie, and that’s good. Because the last thing South Africa need as the outcome of the CSA board’s regressive hankering for the bad old days of selectors is the appointment of a d...

Add Rama, and everything’s OK

“Every team who are going to play against us want to beat us, so we have to pull up our socks.” – Lebohang Ramalepe

Telford Vice / Oujda

LEBOHANG Ramalepe collected her player-of-the-match award at the Honneur Stadium in Oujda late on Monday night, and then the fun started.

She came running towards her teammates, veered away from them, held her trophy away from her body, made it curve through a wide arc at arms’ length before, finally, holding it high above her head to present it to t...

Hermann hunts wins, not numbers

“I knew coming in, the partnership that myself and … I forgot who was batting with me. I can’t remember, it’s such a blur.” – Rubin Hermann

Telford Vice / Oujda

OTHER captains’ noses would have been put out of joint by one of their players forgetting their names. Rassie van der Dussen, not so much.

So Rubin Hermann would have been in the clear after he said: “I knew coming in, the partnership that myself and … I forgot who was batting with me. I can’t remember, it’s such a blur. But I...

T20I triseries spotlight on Coetzee

“It’s tough physically to bowl fast, but I love it. And I trust my body to keep doing that.” – Gerald Coetzee

Telford Vice / Oujda

GERALD Coetzee’s second name is William. You probably need to be South African to be able to wonder how that happened considering Coetzee is Afrikaans — albeit his English is polished — and William certainly isn’t. Then again, the exclusively English-speaking Dale Steyn’s second name is the decidedly Afrikaans Willem.

Coetzee and Steyn are and were, of cou...

For Regina Mogolola, it takes a village

“When you come from the villages you don’t give up. We keep on working no matter what.” – Regina Mogolola

Telford Vice / Oujda

REGINA Mogolola has eyes like the moon that shines on her beloved Limpopo, a smile as wide as the river itself, and a face as open as the plains of her province. So far, so serene.

But below the neck she is a torqued tangle of arms and legs — that crash, knees first, then elbows, into a couch as she makes her way through Banyana Banyana’s hotel lobby in Oujda....

‘We must play with our hearts’ – Andile Dlamini

“We don’t panic. That helps us when we are under pressure. We know that if we get flustered, that’s when we make mistakes.” – Jermaine Seoposenwe

Telford Vice / Oujda

A beautiful noise bloomed in the tunnel at Honneur Stadium in Oujda just less than an hour before the 5pm kick-off in Banyana Banyana’s women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) opener against Ghana on Monday.

The joy rose upward, outward and onward into heavy, motionless air heated to 36 degrees Celsius. The sun was slowly...

Wiaan! Wiaan! Wiaan! Why?

“Respecting the game is really important; letting someone like Lara keep his record. He’s one of the greatest to have ever played the game, so he deserves that.” – Wiaan Mulder

Telford Vice / Oujda

WHY Wiaan? Why would you declare when you are 34 runs away from surpassing Brian Lara — Brian bloody Lara! — and becoming the highest individual scorer in an innings among all the 3,234 men who have yet played Test cricket?

Are you sated by having made the most runs by anyone in an away Tes...

Dion Taljard: From fast bowler to felon to free

He played cricket with all his heart, body and soul. Then a jury decided he was a fiend and consigned him to prison for 18 years.

Telford Vice / Oujda

SEVEN years, eight months and two days is a significant length of time. It’s 92 months and two days. Or 400 weeks and two days. Or 2,802 days. Or 67,248 hours. Or 4,034,880 minutes. Or 242,092,800 seconds. It will feel even longer if you are in prison. Especially if you believe you are innocent.

Dion Taljard counted every one of those d...

Defiant Desiree Ellis expects more for, and from, Banyana

“On the field, there’s nothing more we can do. We’ve done our job. When we came to Wafcon I don’t think anybody expected us to win it. We went to the World Cup and we were told we’re going there on a holiday. But, deep down, we knew what we were going to do.” – Desiree Ellis

Telford Vice / Oujda

DESIREE Ellis came out firing about almost everything on the eve of Banyana Banyana’s defence of the women’s African Cup of Nations (Wafcon) title they won in 2022.

CAF were slammed for their ...