The current crisis enveloping South African cricket is as much about their present-day problems as their past ones
Time was, and not so very long ago, when a South African national side’s ideas about team-bonding involved forcing the players to stand naked in foxholes and sing the national anthem while they had buckets of cold water poured over their heads. Times change. In August 2020, the South African cricket squad got together for a “culture camp” in the Kruger National Park where, according to a statement released afterwards by Cricket South Africa, they spent a week working on their “soft skills” by learning to “feel their way through conversations by using the concepts of storytelling, guided conversation and first-person narrative”.
At the end of week they agreed three new “pillars” for the team, “respect, empathy and belonging”, which, the statement explained, meant: “All teammates must be allowed to be themselves in a team environment and not worry about having concerns of being judged.” So, a year later, how’s that working out?
