KEVIN MCCALLUM: Can Cricket SA’s promise of women pros come ‘now now’?

There has been much talk of equality, opportunity and elitism in sport in recent times. It is the same conversation we have been having, it seems for an age. Who gets more than they are entitled to, who gets less than they deserve and how all the talking in the world will not make an iota of difference.

 After their delightfully unlikely, fighting and fitting journey to the final of the World Cup, the Proteas, the women’s version if you have not been paying attention, walked down a red carpet to the headquarters of Cricket SA in Melrose. Cricket SA’s head office is on a corner in Glenhove Avenue in Joburg, a road where the traffic does not so much flow as stand around in a stagnant time warp, waiting for a gap, an excuse and where the sounds of hurry-up horns fall on deaf ears.

Cricket SA promised to hurry up the advancement of women’s cricket on Wednesday. Again. Sune Luus, Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail have been sounding the hurry-up horn for years. Cricket SA has heard it, nodded and then nodded off. They have had bigger fish to fry these years past, most notably the bottom feeders of their former executives and boards, their acolytes and their hangers-on. It’s tough being at the top when you are dragging your union to the bottom.

There were promises made, then blathered. Then Momentum got involved as a sponsor and things shifted along for a spell. The women fell over themselves to play, sacrificing and scraping by. Their leaders fell over their expense accounts, milking a cow that was running dry and governing in absentia, usually with room service on hand and reserved seats in presidential suites at grounds around the country.

How a final changes things.

Enoch Nkwe, director of cricket, has promised they “are going to go aggressive on domestic professionalisation of the game and if it can happen in the next few months that would be great. To be realistic, we are pushing for the next 12 months. I wouldn’t say this coming season but next because there’s a lot logistically that we need to put together.  

“From an SA20 point of view, we know there have been talks. I’m not 100% sure but hopefully it will happen in the next 12 months. Those talks are in the pipeline, we just don’t know when it will happen.”

So, it will happen, in SA terms, “now-now”, an indeterminate time zone in an undiscovered country. Being “aggressive” and “realistic” in the same sentence, and then having “talks in the pipeline” and not knowing “when it will happen” are words rolled out to placate and distract from what feels like a lack of planning and foresight.

The women have been waiting and are tired of waiting. Their frustration is palpable, their fatigue with promises broken reaching an end. Today, Enoch, it must be in play TODAY. Hell, what was happening yesterday and the day before that? What strategy have you been following or ignoring? Make it happen and make it happen now.

Sune Luus, the captain, has obviously had enough. At a function at the Cape Town City Hall on Monday, she listened to the deputy sports minister Nocawe Mafu speak about how the government was discussing bonuses for the players and what they can do to develop women’s cricket. This from a minister who suggested Sascoc tell their athletes to take up Russia’s offer of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, despite the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority not granting it approval.

Luus did not hold back with a reply that was as biting as it was hopeful. “Minister, we can’t wait to hear from you,” she said. And the crowd went wild. The deputy minister would have preened and nodded in the moment, perhaps having already forgotten what she had said. Words are cheap and fleeting. This government does not do long term. They do immediate and in patches, moving from spotlight to spotlight, taking it with them to avoid it shining on the darkness of their corruption and ineptitude.

As I type this, Tazmin Brits is on commentary with Mark Nicholas as Temba Bavuma’s team take on the West Indies on a booby-trapped pitch. He has suggested that a “lot of people jumped on the bandwagon” after their run to the final. They did and they will, Mark. It’s an easy win. Cricket SA say they have been overwhelmed by sponsors wanting to get involved with the women’s team and not the men. That is not only extraordinary but an opportunity.

There was a time when the Proteas men’s team was the money maker for Cricket SA. That is no longer so. Covid-19 ripped the heart out of that. It’s all about the SA20 now. Hell, right now it’s about Luus and her team. It’s not about pipelines and tomorrows and 12 months. It’s about what is right and due.