The Champions League Twenty20 starts in about two weeks, so I thought I’d find out which players of note are actually coming out to entertain us. A few players qualified to play for their home teams as we’ll as their IPL franchises, so the rich kids had to pay $200 000 per player to the home teams.

The Warriors have therefore already won, the $200 000 (R 1,47 million) paid to the Warriors by RCB for the services of Kallis is more than the total prize money they won for both the MTN40 and Standard Bank Pro20 titles ( R750 000 and R300 000 respectively).

Here are some of the international  and South African players to look out for in the CLT20:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Muttiah Muralitharan, Michael Hussey, Doug Bollinger, Albie Morkel, Matthew Hayden.

Warriors: Davy Jacobs, Ashwell Prince, Colin Ingram, Mark Boucher, Johan Botha, Nicky Boje, Craig Thyssen, Juan Theron, Makhaya Ntini, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Justin Kreusch, Garnett Kruger, Arno Jacobs, Lyall Meyer, Jon Jon Smuts.

Victoria: David Hussey, Brad Hodge, Bryce McGain, Dirk Nannes, Peter Siddle.

Wayamba: Mahela Jayawardene, Ajantha Mendis.

Central Districts: Jacob Oram.

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar, Saurabh Tiwary, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, JP Duminy, Lasith Malinga, Ryan McLaren.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, , Virat Kohli, Cameron White, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Dillon du Preez.

South Australia: Callum Ferguson, Shaun Tait.

Guyana: Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine.

Lions: Alviro Peterson, Thami Tsolekile, Craig Alexander, Shane Burger, Richard Cameron, Werner Coetsee, Cliffe Deacon, Zander de Bruyn, Robert Frylinck, Neil McKenzie, Ethan O’Rielly, Aaron Phangiso, Jean Symes, Jonathan Vandiar, Vaughn van Jaarsveld.

On paper it looks like either a local SA team or one of the IPL franchises will take the trophy, the Warriors look particularly strong and have come off a brilliant season. The Mumbai Indians and Royal Challenger Bangalore also have strong squads, I’ll stick my neck out, Warriors v RCB in the final. This is T20 cricket though, pre-tournament predictions aren’t worth much!

I was uber chuffed when an email popped up in my in-box from Vincent Hofmann inviting me to the SA Cricket Awards Gala Dinner. As a blogger I don’t often get invited to official events and it’s very difficult for me to get access to the players. Vincent and I were accompanied by Mike Stopforth for the evening festivities.

It’s fantastic to see a sports organization like Cricket South Africa embracing social media, their #CSAawards campaign on Twitter was a creative value add to the evening, and it showed how social media can compliment a live event. When writing this article I counted that there were 1024 tweets with the #CSAawards hashtag, which is an awesome level of interaction. CSA has encouraged the players to join Twitter which is a great step forward in giving their fans access to the players on an individual bases.

The various sponsors of the event also made use of social media to cover the event, Standard Bank, Cricket South Africa and KFC Fangaea we’re all tweeting like crazy and posting Twitpics in an effort to include the general public. They even had the presenter Ryan O’Connor reading out tweets from an iPad!

Cricket South Africa have a great Facebook page another sign of the integration of Cricket and social media, now if only we could find more cricket bloggers….

Mark Boucher, me, Graeme Smith and Roelof van der Merwe at the CSA Awards

I’m sure you’re aware by now that the CSA Awards were held last night, where Hashim Amla was named SA Cricket player of the year 2010. I was fortunate enough to attend the event and rub shoulders with the players, administrators and the rest of the SA Cricket fraternity.

A few days ago I made some predictions as to who would win in a few of the categories; so the results are in:

I only managed to predict three out of six correctly, seems I’ll need a bit more time before I’m asked to be an awards judge. More impressive was the five out of six for Hashim Amla, Amla won the awards for SA Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year, SA Players’ Player, CSA Fans’ Cricketer of the Year and the KFC “So Good!” Award. Amla has had a stellar season, his 253* against India was one of the memorable innings of the year to go with a Test average of 65.92 runs in the year, there was no other player close to him.

The Awards evening was a lavish affair put on by Cricket South Africa in celebration of the feats of our domestic and national players. The most impressive part of the evening we’re the ladies that these cricket boys have!

AWARD WINNERS

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS: OPERATIONS

CSA Coach of the Year: Russell Domingo
CSA Groundsman of the Year: Louis Kruger
CSA Scorers’ Association of the Year: Gauteng
CSA Umpire of the Year: Marais Erasmus

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS: DOMESTIC

MTN40 Cricketer of the Year: Herschelle Gibbs
Standard Bank Pro20 Cricketer of the Year: Colin Ingram
SuperSport Series Cricketer of the Year: Rilee Rossouw
CSA Fair Play Award: Chevrolet Knights
MTN Domestic Newcomer of the Year: Pumelela Matshikwe
SA Cricketers’ Association MVP Award: Colin Ingram
Domestic Players’ Player of the Year: Colin Ingram

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS: SA TEAM

MTN Newcomer of the Year: Ryan McLaren
Standard Bank International Pro20 Cricketer of the Year: Charl Langeveldt
Standard Bank One-Day International Cricketer of the Year: AB de Villiers
CSA Test Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla
KFC “So Good!” Award: Hashim Amla
CSA Fans’ Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla
SA Players’ Player of the Year: Hashim Amla
SA Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla

That’s right folks, it’s awards time again for the South African cricket fraternity. Seems that just the other day we were singing the praises of Graeme Smith as he took the award for SA cricket player of the year, mostly for his captaincy during a serious purple patch for SA cricket.

On Tuesday 20^th July Cricket South Africa will name the winner in each category, I figured that since I’m a betting man, I’ll stick my neck out and make my picks.

CSA Umpire of the year: who cares?

MTN40 Cricketer of the year: Tough call, Colin Ingram had a superb season, ending with the most runs in the competition; an average of 60 and a highest score of 125*, which is impressive. Not to be out done, Gibbs also put in a quality performance finishing the MTN40 with the highest average of 70.85 at a strike rate of 119.23 – pure class. This has always been a batsmen’s game, and as a fast bowler myself I’m glad to see a bowler being nominated, Rusty Theron had a stellar season with the ball, he took the most wickets in three games less than second place Tsotsobe. His performance caught the eye of the national selectors and he broke into the T20 squad for the ICC World Twenty20 tournament. My prediction: Rusty Theron.

Standard Bank Pro20 Cricketer of the Year: Could a bowler ever win this award? For me it’s between Colin Ingram and Morne van Wyk. My prediction: Morne van Wyk but I would have like to have seen Vaughn van Jaarsveld nominated.

SuperSport Series Cricketer of the Year: Honestly I didn’t watch a single game, or follow the series in the news, it’s a pity – I know. I can’t make a prediction in this category, I’d be guessing.

Standard Bank International Pro20 Cricketer of the Year: This is probably the easiest prediction to make. My prediction: Jacques Kallis for the way he has transformed his game to become one of the leading players of T20 cricket, he’s been consistent with the bat and has been doing so at a good strike rate. Kallis has also added variation to the bowling attack, making this an easy decision.

Standard Bank ODI Cricketer of the Year: Easy choice, there have been only three batsmen in the game to have scored three consecutive ODI centuries. AB de Villiers added his name to the list to make it four when he scored 102 against the West Indies in the first ODI of the series. His previous two centuries were against India (114*,102), the other players on the list are Zaheer Abbas (Pak), Saeed Anwar (Pak) and Herschelle Gibbs. My prediction: AB de Villiers

CSA Test Cricketer of the Year: Do I really have to say anything? No I don’t because I’ve said it before. My Predication: Hashim Amla

SA Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla has carried himself with pride and respect over the past few years, he had his doubters at the beginning of his career, but over the past year he really has become one of the best players that South Africa has produced. Amla scored his highest total of 253* against India this year and if circumstances had allowed he would have gone on to set a new record. He scored two ODI centuries in 2010, at an average of 74.71 – and people said that he couldn’t play the ODI game. My prediction: Hashim Amla

The finalists are:

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS: DOMESTIC

CSA Umpire of the Year: Johan Cloete, Marais Erasmus, Brian Jerling
MTN40 Cricketer of the Year: Herschelle Gibbs, Colin Ingram, Rusty Theron
Standard Bank Pro20 Cricketer of the Year: Robbie Frylinck, Colin Ingram, Morne van Wyk
SuperSport Series Cricketer of the Year: Vernon Philander, Rilee Rossouw, Thami Tsolekile

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS: SA TEAM

Standard Bank International Pro20 Cricketer of the Year: AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Charl Langeveldt
Standard Bank ODI Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis
CSA Test Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn
SA Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn

I must admit that Dale Steyn’s impressive bowling figures in Test cricket were not apparent to me, I know he’s a world class player, but I didn’t know that he’s on his way to potentially becoming the best fast bowler of all time.

Steyn took his 200^th Test wicket against the West Indies in the first Test of the three match series, that 200^th wicket came from just 39 Test matches. Dale Steyn is the fourth fastest bowler to get to 200 Test wickets, only CV Grimmett (Aus) 36, DK Lillee (Aus) 38 and Waqar Younis (Pak) 38 have reached the 200 Test wicket mile stone quicker than Dale Steyn.

It’s the above statistic that got me reading and looking up Steyn’s statistics, here’s what I found:

Steyn’s strike rate has been consistent since the start of his Test career in December 2004, his 100^th wicket came in his 21st test match.

He’s taken 10 wickets in a match on four occasions, he took 10 wickets back to back against New Zealand in 2007. Steyn has taken 5 wickets on fourteen occasions. To put these statistics in perspective, Shaun Pollock who holds the record for the number of Test wickets by a South African (421) has taken 5 wickets on sixteen occasions and 10 wickets just once .

Bowling partners

The recent success that Morne Morkel has enjoyed should have a positive impact on Dale Steyn, all of the great fast bowlers in the world have had a successful bowling partner. Donald had Pollock, Pollock had Ntini and now Steyn has Morkel.

As South Africans we should enjoy watching the number 1 Test bowler in the world hitting his finest form and celebrate his success.

Alan Donald reached the mile stone of 200 Test wickets in his 42 second test match, 9^th fastest in all time. Donald took 5 wickets on twenty occasions and 10 wickets three occasions.

It wasn’t long ago that there was talk the One Day International cricket in it’s current format is dead and buried. There was a public out cry with conflicting opinions. The old school called for the 50 over format to stay, while the younger crowd were punting the success of T20 cricket.

Cricket administrators have been fiddling with the format of 50 over cricket at the domestic level, the domestic series in South Africa has gone from 50, to 45 and is now at 40 overs in the MTN40. They’ve also introduced all sorts of power plays which is just too boring to explain.

It’s now been reported that the Australian cricket administrators are considering implementing a domestic series of 40-over matches, with each team to bat for two innings of 20 overs. But wait don’t jump to conclusions yet, there’s more. In this ‘new’ format, wickets lost and runs scored would accumulate over the full 40 overs, as I understand it; if a batsman get’s  out in the first innings, then he can’t bat in the second innings.

Crazy if you ask me, and this just as the issue of 50 over ODI cricket had started to settle down.

I’ve previously written about the failings of the MTN40, but over time I’ve started to change my opinion on the various formats of cricket. The success of a format, series or tournament is directly related to the quality of the players competing. It’s simple, cricket fans want to watch the best batsmen and best bowlers. It doesn’t really matter if they playing 50 or 40 overs. The reason the IPL is such as success isn’t because it’s T20 cricket, it’s because the worlds best players come together to compete.

If domestic cricket in South Africa wants to attract more spectators to the cricket grounds then they need to attract international players to the domestic competitions. The IPL, the county championship and England’s domestic T20 (Friends Provident T20) all attract international players.

The MTN40 and the Standard Bank Pro20 need to attract international players – this will bring the crowds back to the cricket grounds. Look at IPL 2 held in South Africa, every single game was well attended.

This brings me to the concept that Shane Warne and the Rajasthan Roylas have introduced, an international brand for a team that competes is domestic competitions, with a pool of players from all over the world…. Doesn’t sound like such a bad idea after all.

When South Africa took on the West Indies in the 5th ODI we were all surprised to see Mark Boucher come onto the field for his 292nd ODI cap as a fielder, the first time without the keepers gloves.

Boucher fielded all over the park and at one point was down on the boundary at third man, Boucher did well in the field, his throwing in from the boundary needs some work though. Mark Boucher took a brilliant catch at mid wicket to dismiss Darren Bravo, this was Mark Boucher’s 400th ODI catch, and the first one without the gloves:

Hashim Amla - Man of the series - Picture from Graeme Smith's Twitpic

The Proteas beat the West Indies 5 -0 in the One Day International series for the third time since readmission to international cricket, the West Indies should be relegated to the ‘b’ league. According to CricInfo’s stat’s guru, since 2000 the West Indies have lost 46 games from 75 played… at home! That’s a disgrace. Never mind the useless West Indies lets look at our boys, the controversial decision to drop Mark Boucher become a farce when David Miller was injured in practise, they brought Boucher back into the team as a specialist batsman. Boucher has played 292 games as a keeper and they bring him back into the team to field at third man? what a disgraceful end to a magnificent ODI career.

Boucher did stick it to the management by taking a blinder of a catch at mid-wicket to dismiss Darren Bravo and claim his 400^th ODI catch.

How can the team management allow themselves to get into a position where they are left exposed by the injury of one player? They released Loots Bosman early, on the same night as the 5^th ODI he scored 94 off 49 balls for Derbyshire in FP T20 in England. More poor leadership and team management …

Enough criticism, oh wait Graeme Smith only managed to score 119 runs in five innings, this man is under pressure – but we believe Graeme, we wait in anticipation for your return to form.

AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, world class batsmen, both of them played fantastic cricket. Amla scored 402 runs at an average of 80.40 and a strike rate of 101.25. Which is a new record for a South African batsman as his 402 is the highest total score over a 5 match ODI series. Amla received the man of the series award and 5 Blackberry’s for his efforts, he shot up the ODI rankings to no. 4 in the world.  Could Hashim Amla be come the best batsman South Africa has ever produced?

de Villiers scored 283 runs at 70.75 and a strike rate of 95.60 – and kept wicket, the importance of this batting display is that keeping wicket hasn’t affected his abilities with the bat. AB needs to work on his keeping, he gave away a few runs and a catch or two behind the stumps.

It was a good outing for our bowlers as well, Morne Morkel took the most wickets in the series even though the didn’t play every game.

There are two areas of our game that concern me, firstly when the West Indian batsmen did get in and started scoring runs freely, we didn’t seem to have a plan to stop them. It’s as if we wait for the batsmen to get themselves out… And the run chase in the last game, that was dismal, our middle to lower order did not perform with the bat.

Well played boys, 2 from 2 in the T20 series, 5 from 5 in the ODI series, now can we take the Test series as convincingly? I think we can.

I was incensed when news broke that Mark Boucher had been dropped from the Protea’s T20 and ODI squads to play the West Indies following the poor performance of the Proteas in the ICC World T20.

My initial reaction was, how can we drop the guy who always seems to be there for us when we need him? He’s been a pillar in the South African team for years, he’s broken all sorts of records along the way… How can we drop him while preparing for the World Cup which is just 15 ODI’s away?

Once my anger had subsided, I started investigating the statistics of Mark Boucher’s batting over the years, it became apparent that he hasn’t been the ‘the guy who saves the day’ for a while. The last time Boucher scored a half century in an ODI was on 31 October 2008 and that was against Kenya, prior to that he scored 55* against India on 29 June 2007.

Some may argue that playing most of your career at number 6 and 7 isn’t conducive to scoring half centuries and bigger scores, so I looked at his average from 16 January 2009, the start of the tour to Australia to his last ODI played against India on 27 February this year. Boucher scored 329 runs in 17 innings, he was not out in 6 of those innings, which gives him an average of 29.91 in that period. That average is slightly higher than his career average of 28.93.

Mark Bouchers batting average shows that he hasn’t set the world alight with his batting efforts, unfortunately for Mark the top five batsmen in the Proteas team have not performed very well in ODI cricket in the past few months. The poor performance of the top order has exposed Mark Boucher as a batsman and he’s taken the fall.

I understand that the dynamics in a team do not always allow for your best players to be included in every game, the coaching staff have reacted to the pressure and opted to hand the gloves to AB de Villiers which allows them to play the extra batsman in the team.

I’m not saying that I would have dropped Mark Boucher, but I understand.