Maverick Sports

Over the last five years no Test opening batsman has scored more runs than Dean Elgar. The Proteas left-hander has knocked off 3018 runs at an average 40.78 since 2016 and has become an indispensable part of the team. Making runs at the top of the order and seeing off the new ball is a vital skill and Elgar has continued to produce for his team, continuing a post-isolation tradition of gritty opening left-handers that have excelled in the Test arena, after Gary Kirsten and Graeme Smith. Over the coming weeks he will face a new challenge when he opens against Pakistan, in Pakistan. Conditions might suit reverse swing and Elgar will again have his technique and fortitude tested in a new way. As always, he is up for the challenge.

Newly appointed Sunshine Tour Commissioner Thomas Abt has taken over at one of the most precarious times in sporting history. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on sport in general, and on golf in this case, is likely to be profound. The cost of the pandemic might not fully be known for years to come, and Abt will be the person steering South Africa’s professional game through the turbulence. He has two decades of experience in the golfing industry. He started as an assistant golf professional at the Lost City Course at Sun City, before moving to Sports Marketing Company SAIL, where he became head of the golf division. More recently he occupied a dual role as deputy Sunshine Tour Commissioner while still at SAIL, but on 1 October, he moved on a full time basis to the Sunshine Tour. The Sunshine Tour’s motto is: “greatness begins here” and Abt aims to ensure that he and the tour live up to it.

One of rugby’s great myths is that the forwards are always the unthinking, heavy lifters, while the backs have all the brains. It probably comes from a small sample of players back in the sport’s sepia-toned past, but times have changed. Sharks CEO Eduard Coetzee was a prop – and a very good one at that – he played Super Rugby for the Sharks, for South Africa ‘A’ and spent eight years playing in France for Biarritz. He is anything but unthinking or brainless, and as rugby enters a new post-Covid-19 world, the challenges that the game faced before the pandemic ravaged the planet, have been exacerbated by six months of lockdown. Previous business models have to be torn up and re-engineered. For the next few years at least, professional rugby in South Africa and globally too, will be in a precarious position. It will take bold, innovative young leaders such as Coetzee to navigate a way through these turbulent times.

As a rugby player he was tougher than complex quantum physics and more courageous than a wounded lion. He captained the Springboks 18 times and played 39 Tests at a time when Bok rugby was in a deep state of flux and going through coaches as quickly as Cheslin Kolbe goes through defenses. The enduring image of Corne Krige is one of a bloodied and bruised, but never cowed, player. He played every game as if it were his last – sometimes, by his own admission, stepping over the line whether in Western Province, Stormers or Springbok colours. Since retirement he has carved out a successful business career and stays fit on his mountain bike. Corne also keeps a close eye on rugby from the outside and is still passionate about WP and the Springboks. On the Maverick Sports Podcast he talks about the past, present and future of South African rugby and typically, pulls no punches.

Cricket in South Africa is at a major crossroads. There is a leadership vacuum, a pending financial crisis, transformation, race and social justice issues as well as unease from sponsors and most importantly, players. It’s easy to forget the 315 players who make some form of a living in the cricket industry. It’s easier to forget the many lives that cricket supports through salaries paid to coaches, office, managerial and cleaning staff, and the many small businesses such as hospitality, cleaning and security services that the game supports. This week, a concerned Andrew Breetzke, CEO of the South African Cricketers’ Association, otherwise known as Saca helps us unpack the drama that is Cricket South Africa.

Former ICC and Cricket South Africa CEO Haroon Lorgat has seen it all in the game. From South Africa’s tentative return to the international arena in the early 1990s, to India’s rise to cricketing super power in the 21st century. He famously stood up to India at ICC meetings, both as CEO of the international organisation and of CSA. It was controversial and led to some spats, but Lorgat always put the interests of the organisation he was representing, and of the game of cricket first. After parting ways with CSA in acrimonious circumstances in 2017, Lorgat has returned to the private sector but has also been involved in the establishment and running of the T20 Pakistan Super League where he has brought his considerable knowledge to that tournament. With Covid-19 wreaking havoc with the playing schedule and CSA in a dire financial situation, Lorgat joins the Maverick Sports Podcast this week and pulls no punches in his assessment of the game, its past and its future.

The old saying goes that defence wins World Cups and in 2019 that adage held true as the Springboks conceded a miserly four tries in seven matches at RWC 2019 to claim their third world title. The mastermind behind their steel was renowned defence coach Jacques Nienaber, who has spent more time than is healthy in dark rooms, lit by LED screens, watching men tackle each other. Jacques has been the power behind the throne for all of his coaching career but in 2020, he has stepped into the spotlight as the 15th post-isolation Springbok head coach. Normally he would have overseen his first Test matches by this time of the year, but due to the suspension of competition as a result of coronavirus, he is still waiting to lead the current world champions into Test battle. Until then, like a likeable Bond villain, Nienaber has time to plot and plan another four years of world rugby dominance, as he waits to unleash the Boks again.

He played 77 Tests for South Africa, 75 of those at lock. He twice played loose forward, and it was the two he played at No 8 that might be most remembered. Mark Andrews was a Springbok giant in every sense of the word, but in the space of seven days in 1995 he was asked to do a specific job by coach Kitch Christie, playing out of position in the back row in two of the most memorable and crucial games in South African rugby history. June the 24th marked the 25th anniversary of the Springboks winning the 1995 World Cup with a famous 15-12 victory over the All Blacks at Ellis Park. He won many accolades as a player and has gone on to achieve success in the business world. Mark won Currie Cups and a Tri-Nations title and played 94 matches in total for South Africa, but his name will always be synonymous with the class of 1995.

Wayde van Niekerk is unquestionably South Africa’s most accomplished athlete of all time. He is the only runner in history to break 10 seconds for the 100m, 20 seconds for the 200m and 44 seconds for the 400m. He comes from great stock as his mother Odessa was a world-class sprinter and Springbok World Cup winner Cheslin Kolbe is his cousin. The pair famously won medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics. In 2020, Wayde was hoping to defend the 400m title he so famously won in world record time four years ago but that will have to wait for at least another year. The 2020 Olympic Games postponement due to the Coronavirus pandemic has moved the Tokyo Games to 2021. After nearly two frustrating years on the sidelines due to injury, Van Niekerk was demonstrating a good return to form earlier this year. So, while he was confined to training without competition, Wayde took time out to join the Maverick Sports podcast this week.

He is considered South Africa’s greatest-ever opening batsman, but even more impressively, he is the country’s most successful captain having led the Proteas to historic series wins in Australia and England and the team to the top of the world Test rankings. Graeme Smith was appointed Proteas captain at 22, but quickly stamped his authority on the team. He was accomplished in all forms of cricket and had a sensational career on the field. He’s now turned to the administrative side of the game as Cricket South Africa’s director of cricket at 39. Given the challenges that face cricket both on and off the field, which are compounded by the uncertainty over the Coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, these are difficult times for the sport. Smith doesn’t have all the answers, but when it comes to rebuilding the Proteas team and meeting challenges head-on, there could be no one better lead from the front than the man affectionately known as ‘Biff’.

Kagiso Rabada has been an integral member of the Proteas set up for five years and he still has many years ahead of him to terrorise batsmen and rewrite South Africa’s bowling records. He was a schoolboy phenom who dominated under-19 cricket. But unlike so many who are touted as future greats only to fall away under the pressure of senior professional cricket, Rabada has improved at every level. It’s a rare athlete that gets better as the levels rise and the opposition improves. Right now, the coronavirus pandemic is robbing Kagiso and his teammates’ opportunities to play, but while he stays fit behind closed doors under lockdown, ‘joins us on the Maverick Sports Podcast.

Newly appointed Bulls director of rugby Jake White has a clear vision of turning the franchise into the dominant force in southern hemisphere rugby. With the backing of wealthy owners at Loftus Versfeld, White has the means to see his project through. All he needs now is for the coronavirus pandemic to pass so he can start work in earnest. While he waits to get his hands on the team, he joins the Maverick Sports Podcast to talk about his journey; great moments of joy and despair, and to reminisce about some key incidents in a career that has spanned Himalayan highs and deep lows. White has his critics, but ultimately he has been successful with every team he has coached in a career that has spanned 35 years.

He is the only batsman in cricket history to have made half centuries on debut in all three formats of the game - Tests, One-Day Internationals and T20s – and the only South African to score seven fifties in his first 14 ODI innings’. Rassie van der Dussen has taken the road less travelled to the top of the game. He made his ODI debut at 29 and his Test debut at 30, having ground out a career in the backwaters of local cricket. Unlike prodigies that emerge straight from high school into the national set-up, Van der Dussen took the better part of a decade to find his way onto the international stage, but when he arrived, he showed he belonged.

Chad Le Clos is on track to become South Africa's most successful Olympian of all time if he adds to the four medals he won in London 2012 and Rio 2016, in Tokyo next year. The decorated swimmer has three Olympic silvers, and one gold, which he famously won by ending Michael Phelps’ 10-year unbeaten streak in the 200m butterfly in London eight years ago. Le Clos will be 29 at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and admits he is the underdog as a new generation of swimmers emerges. On Today’s Maverick Sports podcast, Le Clos talks about the highs of London, the lows that followed, the scourge of doping and his determination to leave an unprecedented legacy in South African sport.

He has run a successful publishing company, has a Masters degree in creative writing, a law degree, an MBA and has written two novels. But that’s just one piece of John Dobson’s story. In another part of his life he coached UCT to the Varsity Cup title, won a Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup as head coach of Western Province and guided WP’s U-21s to two national titles. He had playing stints in Italy and Portugal and is currently head coach of the Stormers in Super Rugby. His mother still asks when he is going to get a ‘real job’, but Dobson is a self-confessed ‘rugby romantic’ whose deep passion for the game was moulded by a family steeped in rugby. He sees coaching as not only teaching young players how to become better at their jobs and to win matches and titles, but also how to become better human beings.

He has coached South Africa to two World Series titles, a Commonwealth Games’ gold medal and an Olympic bronze medal, but for Blitzbok coach Neil Powell the job is only partly about winning titles. The South Africa sevens programme has become the envy of the world game, where it keeps churning out world-class sevens players every year and setting the tactical standard for the shorter version of the sport. The team had set its sights on Olympic gold in Tokyo this year, but that target has moved after the postponement of the global showpiece to July and August 2021 following the outbreak of the Coronavirus. It will lead to a massive adjustment of the Blitzboks’ preparation time frames but will also give them a chance to evolve even further. Neil joins the Maverick Sports Podcast today, to talk about these and many other issues.

In this episode we hand over the Maverick Sports podcast platform to the biggest issue of our time – perhaps of any time since World War II – Coronavirus. The sporting landscape both locally and internationally has been decimated by cancellations and postponements in recent weeks. The 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo the latest casualty of the global pandemic. On the podcast today is respected journalist and 20 times Comrades Marathon runner Mark Heywood. Mark is a veteran activist who was on the front line in the HIV crisis in South Africa more than a decade ago. He is editor of Maverick Citizen, which is telling vital stories of Coronavirus and more at both a macro and micro level. Once again he finds himself on the front line of a health crisis. As a sports lover Mark understands the impact that Covid-19 is having in that space and helps us unpack it through a wide lens.

The 2020 Masters has been postponed due to coronavirus but this week we turn back the clock to remember one of the great achievers in South African sport. Trevor Immelman has the rare distinction of twice fending off prime Tiger Woods down the stretch in massive golf tournaments. The first was to win the 2006 Western Open on the PGA Tour and the second, most famously, was to claim the 2008 Masters at Augusta National when he was only 28. Immelman’s victory made him the fifth South African to win one of golf’s majors and only the second after Gary Player to claim the Masters’ green jacket. Victory gave him a lifetime membership at Augusta and moved him into a select group of players to have won one of golf’s four elite tournaments. He also won the South African Open twice on his ‘home’ course of Erinvale. After that heady win at Augusta, Immelman’s career hit some bumps through severe injuries and loss of confidence and he never won another professional tournament. Immelman has no regrets though, as he moves into the next phase of his career as an analyst and commentator for the Golf Channel.

Doug Ryder only wanted to be a pro cyclist. He eked out a living trying to fulfil that dream on the cold European winter and autumn circuit in the 1990s and had moderate success. Through those experiences a dream of building an African cycling team that would compete at the elite level started to form. The dream slowly became reality as Ryder banged on the door of the sport with only his vision and passion to sell. He met resistance, mirth and suspicion from cycling’s establishment, and learned some valuable lessons along the way. But he never gave up and today the NTT Pro Cycling Team (formerly Dimension Data) is in the first division of the World Tour. Since its entry to the upper echelons of the sport its riders have won many races, including seven Tour de France stages. It has also given over 80,000 bikes to underprivileged African communities through its Qhubeka Foundation and it continues to grow. Today, Ryder joins the Maverick Sports Podcast to talk about the rise of the little team from Africa, which had no money, to an organisation that employs more than 100 people and has a R255m annual budget.

It’s 42 in 2020 but unlike most 40-year-olds, the Cape Town Cycle Tour shows no signs of decline or of slowing down. The iconic race is now as much a part of South Africa’s sporting landscape as the Comrades Marathon. Its world-class organisation, coupled with unparalleled scenery, makes it a bucket list event for every cyclist and many non-cyclists. With 35000 participants riding a 109km route across the Cape Peninsula, it requires impeccable logistics, planning, cooperation, a little luck and a big sense of humour. Dave Bellairs is one of the dedicated team tasked with bringing all these moving parts together to ensure that the iconic event meets the expectations of first time riders and of those doing the Tour for a 10th time or more. In 2020, there is also the small matter of the Coronavirus outbreak to consider…