OPINION: IPL before Proteas … money talks in T20 game

A number of Proteas T20 World Cup players will be in action in the IPL from next month. Picture: MB Media/Getty Images If you weren’t paying attention, you would have missed Friday’s announcement of the Proteas T20 squad for a five-match series in New Zealand starting on 15 March. The 15-man squad includes just three members who’re currently in India involved in the T20 World Cup, namely Keshav Maharaj, who’ll captain the side, George Linde and Jason Smith.

The T20 World Cup final is on 8 March, a week before the Proteas’ first game in New Zealand. Hence, the reason why the majority of the World Cup squad weren’t considered for the trip to take on the Black Caps; they all need a break right, especially as the Proteas guys went straight into the World Cup on the back of a month-long SA20 competition? Wrong, the other 12 Proteas World Cup players weren’t picked to tour New Zealand because the Indian Premier League starts on 26 March and they need a break before getting themselves back to India for some pre-tournament training and PR stuff.

These players are Aiden Markram, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Quinton de Kock, Ryan Rickelton, Corbin Bosch, Marco Jansen and Kwena Maphaka. So while it is great to see new faces in the Proteas set-up for the New Zealand trip, among them the Hermann brothers, Jordan and Rubin, as well as Dian Forrester, Connor Esterhuizen and Nqobani Mokoena, it is a team that is far from being at its best. And then one should ask, why are the Proteas even playing the series?

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And, is winning the first priority? We can go further, why should the IPL take preference over playing for your country? While the IPL is on the go, the Pakistan Premier League will also take place.

Then it’s The Hundred in England, the Caribbean Premier League, and we haven’t even got to Australia’s Big Bash and New Zealand’s Super Smash. It really does seem like international series’ are now very much an after-thought, with little real significance attached to the outcome. Everything is geared towards making money in domestic T20 leagues and global events, which is a great pity.

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