Cape Town - Only a few games have been played, but there seems to be a positive vibe about the ongoing SA20 cricket that began at Newlands in Cape Town, where MI Cape Town beat neighbours Paarl Royals.
No doubt, spectators make the game, and that’s exactly the main missing link in the current state of the game of cricket in South Africa.
Then there was that spectacle between Durban’s Super Giants and Joburg Super Kings.
The sport has not seen such a great atmosphere at Kingsmead in years. In fact, there has been a sense of the KwaZulu-Natal cricket headquarters becoming a white elephant, with the few games that are played in South Africa rotating between Newlands in Cape Town, Wanderers in Johannesburg, and Centurion in Pretoria.
For a change, the Kingsmead grass banks were pumping on Wednesday night. The famous Castle Corner was rousing.
It mattered little that the home team fell 16 runs short in a thrilling run chase because everybody left the ground with a smile on their faces.
IOL Sport reported that even 76-year-old legend Mike Proctor was caught beaming over a format of a game that he might once have thought was plain silly.
But on the basis of the first two matches, SA20 is bringing everyone back to South African cricket grounds and thus far people are loving it.
And that’s what sports fans want: entertainment.
Understandably, cricket has struggled to transform in many aspects in South Africa.
The sport has, for many years, produced a particular calibre of players and administrators, and must now look at how South Africa can break the stranglehold that India, Australia and England have on the game globally.
Some smart thinking and deft moves will be required to convince the sponsors to return to the game domestically.
The challenges afflicting the game of cricket in South Africa are evident in the national team, the Proteas.
Something needed to happen to remind people of the beauty of the game.
Who knows, the current SA20 tournament may be the catalyst to charm fans back to the grounds.
Cape Times