Remember The Name: part 1 - The heir to Boucher's Throne.

At the moment, the South African cricket team does not have a specialist wicketkeeper. AB de Villiers, one of the Proteas' more accomplished fielders has been entrusted with the responsibility of the gloves while being expected to continue performing with the bat.

It is quite a farcical situation considering that a specialist 'keeper in Thami Tsolekile is waiting in reserve. The only reason that I can come up with as to why Tsolekile hasn’t yet found himself in the XI is that perhaps his batting could be deemed as suspect and I don’t suppose the South African selectors would have wanted to expose him to a bowling attack as proficient as England’s during the tour of England a few months back. The real toss up for the selectors right now is JP Duminy’s batting versus that of Tsolekile. Duminy averages 37, 57 runs per innings in Tests and 51 in First Class matches compared to Tsolekile’s 9, 40 in Tests and 29, 01 in all First Class games; granted Duminy has played in thirteen more Tests. But at some point, the selectors will realise that they do in fact need a specialist wicketkeeper and right now that solution is Tsolekile. However considering that Tsolekile is in his thirties and only a few years younger than the previous keeper, Mark Boucher, even he cannot be regarded as a long term fixture behind the stumps. So who will the SA selectors turn to?

CLT20: De Kock celebrates after making 50 against the Mumbai Indians

I am putting my money on young Highveld Lions keeper/batsman Quinton de Kock. He is 19 and in his breakthrough season of professional cricket. Initially, he was a highly thought of gloveman who was handy with the bat but since the days of his early promise, de Kock has proven that he is as good in behind the stumps as he is with bat in hand. The left-handed batsman starred for the SA u19 cricket team at the World Cup played in Australia earlier this year where he made 284 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47,33 and an impressive strike rate of 102,52. De Kock has been a regular in the senior set-up at Gauteng cricket since 2009 where he made his debut as a 16 year old representing the Gauteng senior amateur side in a game against Border. He has been most impressive in First Class cricket where he has amassed 1209 runs in 14 matches at an average of 63, 63 and most remarkably in that time he has already scored 4 centuries with his highest score of 194 scored earlier this season against the Cape Cobras. De Kock seems like the real deal. He has been a consistent and quality performer in all 3 formats of the game and he is an attacking batsman as his strike rate of almost 88 in first class cricket suggests and a powerful striker of the ball, in the mould of Adam Gilchrist. 

Tidy Glovework.

Mark Boucher was able to stand alone as South Africa’s wicketkeeper without any pretenders to his throne or anyone mounting a serious challenge for the wicketkeeper’s spot for 15 years apart from Tsolekile who knocked him off his perch for a brief period in 2004. The reality of it is that there isn’t a shortage of skilled or talented ‘keepers playing the domestic game, all you have to do is cast a glance at the list of ‘keepers playing in SA: Morne van Wyk, Davy Jacobs, and Daryn Smit etc… But I reckon de Kock would have the edge over anybody else because quite simply he is young and could have the same opportunity as mark Boucher to grow in the role of being the Proteas gloveman, and, if given the choice, the decision makers, I think, would want someone who is a quality performer and one who would be able to make the position his own and remained settled in that spot for a long period of time. If this is so then de Kock is their man. Remember the name Quinton de Kock. You’re gonna be hearing it a lot soon.

Rugby Goes To Soweto? Come off it, man!

So all through last week, all I was hearing about the Test match between South Africa versus New Zealand was the buzz. Rugby goes to Soweto. Sure, the FNB Stadium might be in the vicinity of Soweto, although some might argue that point too, but the Test was misrepresented as a rugby match for the people of Soweto.

Well, from what I saw of the crowd, it didn't look any different to the crowd you find at Newlands or Loftus Versfeld. I don't mind that the game was at the FNB Stadium, but I do have a gripe with the way this fixture it was marketed. The Springboks versus All Blacks game is the biggest game of the year and probably one of only a handful of rugby internationals that can pull a crowd of over eighty thousand. So very clearly, the biggest sporting arena in the land for the biggest rugby game in the land is all about the money. Hey, we already know this, you don't have to say it explicitly but don't shove horse shit down our throats and tell us it tastes like candy.

The game had nothing to do with the people of Soweto. Sure, there were a set number of tickets allocated for Soweto residents only, but the fact that the tickets were priced at R250 a shot disqualifies so many from going to the game and watching their national rugby team on their front doorstep, especially when u think about the only other game that fills up the FNB Stadium, the Soweto Derby where the tickets are priced at R40 a shot. It cannot be any clearer.

If the rugby people in suits wanted the people of Soweto to come out and enjoy the rugby, they wouldn't have set the price so high. They can tell us about costs and whatever else, but this game was all about large profit margins. For R250, me and 5 of my mates could go and enjoy the game and have an awesome day out. For the same amount, only one of us can go to the rugby.

When Kings of Leon and U2 perform at Soccer City, they don’t crow about rock music coming to Soweto coz they know we know better. I realise there are so many stakeholders involved in this venture and marketing it the way it was probably benefits a lot more than just the rugby suits and it paints a rosy picture politically, but if you want to market it as a game in Soweto for the people of Soweto, play ball. Make it affordable for the average Sowetan. Simple.

The Curious Case of Benedict Button Vilakazi

Mawande writes...

A story of a cheat, failure or half fulfilled potential?

Considering I was a massive fan of Benedict Vilakazi in times gone by, I must admit that I am a little disappointed that his career never hit the highs I and many professionals thought he would or deserved to.

At one point, he was probably the brightest young player in the country. Benedict Vilakazi burst on the South African football scene as a 17 year old in the Vodacom Challenge in the colours of Orlando Pirates in 1999. He seemed quite an accomplished footballer from very early on, earning high praise from his coach at the Buccaneers at the time, one Gordon Igesund. He rose to stardom fairly quickly, captaining the SA under 20 and under 23 teams very early in his career and earned his first cap for the senior national team when he was only 20 years old.

Bafana Bafana: Coulda been an all-time great.

Ordinarily, you might expect the story of an exceptionally talented youngster with great achievements notched up early in his career to go on to bigger things and achieve legendary status by the end of the story. However, the story of the man dubbed 'Tso' by fans has not ended that way. At the relatively young age of 30, when perhaps many other midfielders of high acclaim reach the peak of their powers, Tso, no longer plays professional football. When you take time to look at how some players of Tso's generation, think Steven Pienaar and perhaps Siyabonga Nomvethe are playing the best football of their careers, it begs the question how this came to be.

Captain. All Time Record Goal scorer. Legend

At Orlando Pirates, Tso is a cult figure. He played in 170 games for the Sea Robbers and is the club's all-time record goal scorer with 58 goals. I don't think there can be any doubt that he played his best football in the black and white of Pirates. Sadly for football, it was all before he turned 25. From very early on in his career though, Tso was labelled as an age cheat in some corners, and looking at how the rest of his career panned out, it's possible to believe such. He moved to Danish club Aalborg in 2007 where he only featured in 5 games for the club before returning home after only one season in 2008. By the time he was playing for Mamelodi Sundowns, he looked like a player who was passed it. Sure, his time in Denmark was plagued by illness which hampered his chances of making it big over there, but was his time out of the game such an impediment that he would return a totally different player?

European Expedition: In the colours of AAlborg BK.

After his return from Europe, Vilakazi only played in 50 professional games between 2008 and 2012. A period troubled with indiscipline on his part and inconsistency in his performances. For my mind, it would seem to suggest that he had been caught out. He just didn't perform like a man in his twenties. I think it is quite peculiar that a precocious talent such as Vilakazi would earn the last of his 31 caps for Bafana Bafana at age 25 His performances from the time he was 25, on official records, didn't improve with age and experience up until the time of retirement.

It just wasn't the same

The last club he played for, Black Leopards did release him from his contract because he was found to have an unspecified medical condition. It may be that this is the same condition that dogged him in Denmark and that it did adversely affect his performances on the pitch and it may well be a valid reason for his retirement. But I'm always going to wonder if his "30 year old” legs gave in and couldn't carry him any longer.

Perhaps Benedict Vilakazi was one of the lucky ones who got to play professional football at all. Few get to play at the levels he did and up until the age that he did. Other tremendously talented footballers like Patrick Mbuthu, Thabiso “Skapie” Malatsi and Junior Khanye, to name a few, didn’t accomplish half of what Tso achieved in his career. To be quite honest though, I cannot be sure if the story of Benedict Vilakazi is one of an age cheat who lived the high life but was eventually out or a supremely gifted magician who failed in reaching the heights that he ought to or indeed half fulfilled his potential.

King for a day

Skangele Mateza shares some of his views on the Eastern Province Kings:

Let’s face facts, whatever team the EP Kings decides to field in Super Rugby next year they will get beaten more often than not. Sometimes it will be very badly. With only one year guaranteed to them they seem to be going the route of recruiting well established players passed their peak. What was the mandate of the franchise when they were assured Super Rugby participation initially? Was it not to strengthen development rugby within a stronghold of black talent in this country? 

Make no mistake its politics that has given the kings this opportunity to begin with. I would rather spend my money to watch Siyanda Grey, Wes Dunlop, Banda Coyi, Ntando Kebe, Roy Bursey and the like, than support a team of Steven Sykes, Andries Strauss and whomever else they are interested in.

The Kings have become a retirement village of sorts for European players who were in wilderness and seemingly this is going to continue. Of course some good buys have been made, some talent retained but on the whole the Kings have failed or are failing their initial mandate in my opinion. With one year of Super Rugby to play, I would have played a mainly young homegrown team, playing talented youngsters who are IN the Eastern Cape province not people who claim roots to it. Either way we will get beat, but it will have political leverage in an attempt to make further gains in rugby development. 

Skangele is an Eastern Cape local and rugby god in the eyes of his younger brother,

Man City? Pedigree? Dynasty? Oh please. You're joking.

Mawande writes.

Sure they may have won last season's league title and one of the most expensively assembled squads in the history of the game, but I am not easily impressed, and Manchester City does not impress me at all.

Champions. Vincent Kompany holds the Premiership trophy aloft. Quality side or the best of a bad bunch?

I believe that any team that wins a contest, be it the league, a match or tournament, does so because they deserve to. Take nothing away from Manchester City, they fully deserved to win the Premiership because they were at the top of the standings when the last game was done and dusted. But really, they were the best of an average lot. And somehow Manchester United managed to blow an 8 point lead with 5 games to go that handed City the title. Does that make City's victory a fluke or was it good fortune? Good fortune I’d say, but a better Man United squad would not have let such a hug lead slip so close to the end.

Silva and Toure. The two world class players at City.

While they sneaked past the finish line in first place over in England, they were shown up to be short of the quality that so characterises sides with championship pedigree when competing with elite clubs. They looked horribly out of place in their debut Champions League season, failing to proceed past the group stages, where they featured in a group including Bayern Munich, who were runners up in the Champions League and the German Bundesliga; Napoli, who claimed 5th place in Serie A; and Villareal who were relegated from La Liga. Quite baffling that a side that would go on to win the English championship would struggle to make it out of a group that did not have a single other title winner, if not for the explanation that the league season in England did not have an outstanding team.

Mancini.

Like I say, I don't think that Man City have outstanding quality as a team, I see the club simply as an expensively assembled group. And at that, I think only Yaya Toure, David Silva and maybe Carlos Tevez were worth the money paid for their services and perhaps Vincent Kompany was a bargain at six million pounds, considering that Chelsea’s David Luiz cost the London club 4 times that amount. Roberto Mancini is a reactive as opposed to a proactive manager. Many will say that he is the typical conservative Italian manager but really, with the money and the players he had at his disposal, it is quite poor of him that he often employs defensive, read as negative, tactics where you'll often find against the bigger teams in Premiership, his starting XI comprises 2 defensive midfielders.

Sinclair: Who wants to play for England when you can sit on the City bench?

Looking at the signings that were made in the European summer, one cannot believe that Manchester City serious about building a dynasty as many of their players have claimed. Their business was done mainly on the last of the window and while they may be decent players, Maicon is past his prime and Scott Sinclair well, is not world class and can barely get a look in for the England national team.

It is possible that this may read as a rant, but far from it, it’s just that the City side is not as good as it has been claimed. They are nowhere near the great sides that the English Premiership has seen over the years. I know sports and competition make the biggest and worst tasting humble pies, and should City retain the Premiership or win the Champions League, I will be the first to admit it and serve myself a huge slice of said pies. Until then, I will continue to believe that they are an overrated club.

What do you think?