LATEST FORMAT
The match had been billed as the Solidarity Cup and was meant to raise funds for people in the game who have suffered financially because of the pandemic. © Getty
Cricket is safe from 3TC. For now. The newest format of the game was to have been unveiled at Centurion next Saturday: three teams consisting of eight players each would have played a single match of 36 overs. But, Fame Dubai has learned, South Africa’s government has not approved the venture.
Centurion is in a coronavirus hotspot, which means Cricket South Africa (CSA) would need approval from the health ministry as well as the department of sport to use the venue for the match. Currently, they have neither. Despite repeated assurances from CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith at 3TC’s launch on Wednesday that “everything has been okayed” with the government after extensive presentation and consultation, the match has been postponed.
“The operational teams behind the solidarity match and event partners in collaboration with CSA, 3TCricket, and [broadcaster] SuperSport met to consider the readiness to host the event on June 27,” CSA said in a release on Saturday. “Following this meeting it has become clear that more work is needed in preparation, including approval. A new date will be announced in due course.”
The match had been billed as the Solidarity Cup and was meant to raise funds for people in the game who have suffered financially because of the pandemic. The concept is the brainchild of multi-millionaire banker Paul Harris, who said he hit on the idea when he wanted to play cards with his wife and daughter in a game that was designed for two.
But the special provisions of 3TC – a team’s 12 overs at the crease would be split into blocks of six overs against each of their opponents’ attacks, and they would bat in order of their highest scores in the second half of their innings – threaten to complicate the format past the point where it remains a reasonable facsimile of cricket.
Still, with one of Harris’ companies sponsoring the event, the three teams each securing commercial backing, and SuperSport agreeing to cover the broadcast production costs, CSA couldn’t afford to look this gift horse in the mouth – especially as they are more cash-strapped now, because of Covid-19, than they were before when they were projected to lose up to USD1-billion by the end of the 2022 rights cycle.
But that’s no excuse for CSA to make the level of noise they made on Wednesday without having express approval to stage 3TC from the government of a state whose population is 19th on the global list of countries that have had the most cases of the virus. South Africa has been in various stages of lockdown since March 27, and although restrictions are being eased – chiefly because the economy is struggling – experts are adamant peak infection rate has not been reached.
On Wednesday, Smith said: “There are permits in place for players to be moving around now. We know that domestic travel has opened up for business purposes as well. We’ve been working very closely with the minister of arts and culture [and sport, Nathi Mthethwa]. We’ve presented extensive medical plans on the return to training and the return to play for professional non-contact sport. We have been gazetted and we’re excited to move forward. The best way to do that is with an opportunity to raise as much money as possible for everyone who has fallen on hard times.
“We’ve done an extensive amount of work. I lose track of how much we’ve presented to the ministry through the director-general. We have submitted again post gazetting. We’ve got a meeting this afternoon with everybody again. We’re ready to go. We’ve worked together with the government on this and we’re excited to have their support.
“We’ve presented our plans – from hotel to ground to stadium to zoning. Everything has been handled. It’s been cleared. The medical team are driving everything, and everything has been okayed.”
It appears that is not so, and so Smith has dented his standing as the antidote to much that is wrong with the way the game is run in the country. But South Africans who know cricket as a tussle between two XIs in innings of 20 or 50 overs, or until 10 wickets have fallen or a declaration has been made, won’t be unhappy that remains the case. For now.
© Fame Dubai
