Furious groundsman, angry bowlers and wet field turn final into a farce

Where to begin?

What should be one of the country’s premier fixtures, a showpiece to end the cricket season on a high, has descended into a farce. 

The sun shone all day Thursday and the cricketers of the Lions and Titans, gathered at the Wanderers, one of the sport’s most storied venues, for the Four-Day Series final, did not play. 

Friday dawned bright too, and what should have been a 9.30am start to make up for time lost, was instead delayed by more than three hours.

Wet patches on the outfield in front of the Taverners Stand at the south east side of the ground were not fit for play.

Of more concern, were the run-ups for bowlers at the Corlett Drive End, which were damp. 

From 10am to noon, nothing happened.

Everyone appeared to give up, hoping the sun would do enough to dry the areas deemed dangerous by the match officials.

There was zero urgency other than two gentlemen bringing a plinth onto the field, atop which was placed the competition’s unattractive trophy. 

It stood there for half an hour, the prize for which they were all supposed to be playing, the field’s only occupant. 

Then another umpires inspection at 12.10, more prodding of the bowlers run-ups. Josh Richards, the Lions opener, walked around barefoot. There was lots of hand gesturing from everyone — umpires, players, match referee Gerrie Pienaar and the venue’s head groundsman, Brendon Frost. 

On Thursday even as play had been called off because of the wet outfield, at least Frost still retained his sense of humour. On Friday, he just scowled.

During what should have been the day two lunch break, finally, a decision was made that play would start at 1pm.

The boundary in front of the Taverners Stand was brought in by three metres so that most of the wet area was out of play.

The toss took place at 12.30pm.

They had to do it twice.

The match is being streamed on Cricket SA’s YouTube channel — SuperSport, who still hold the rights to broadcast cricket, have chosen not to show the final match of the season. 

A mix up between the producers and the players, saw Lions skipper Dominic Hendricks toss the coin before the cameras were ready.

Neil Brandt won that toss, but because it wasn’t broadcast, Pienaar instructed Hendricks to toss again.

This time the coin fell in his side’s favour and Hendricks decided to bat. Brandt was not happy — but decided to get on with the game. 

Hendricks hit some boundaries, Richards blocked and left. Dayyaan Galiem didn’t have any trouble running through the damp area — now covered with sawdust — and Janco Smit, playing his second match, bowling at the Golf Course End, also had no issues. 

But then, when Junior Dala began bowling from that side, there were more problems. The umpires had been concerned on Thursday about what was described as a “loose plate” in the bowlers’ landing area at that end. 

Dala’s awkward action carved out a piece of the surface. He complained to umpire Dennis Smith that his foot was sliding and all his weight was going into his ankle and he risked injury. 

Play stopped again while the offending area was smashed with a mallet. The players took a drinks break with one ball left in the 12th over. 

At the end of Dala’s next over, he gestured that he couldn’t bowl. Now Smith was joined by colleague Allahudien Pallekar — who’s recently been promoted to the ICC’s elite umpires panel — with both doing more prodding of the landing area. The players gathered around.

Dala was already making his way off the field, muttering first to teammate Keegan Petersen and then when he reached the boundary, the Titans’ stand-in coach Richard das Neves. 

Now all the players walked off. Tea was called 50 minutes before the revised time for the interval. 

Frost returned and, showing extraordinary innovation, used a hammer and spade to carve out the landing area, then took a piece of turf from an adjacent pitch, inserted it into the landing area, took one of those metal thumping devices and no doubt took out some of his anger as he hammered the piece of turf into place. 

The umpires seemed satisfied. The players were back on at 2.40pm. They played cricket for the next two hours. The Lions were 160/2 when bad light stopped play.