Thanks for your ‘help’ SuperSport

By Michael de Vries

South African cricket is going through a “golden period”, if the hype is to be believed then our national team has not had this much quality and depth in the post-isolation era. It’s great for those who never stopped believing. Kepler, Hansie and Polly’s teams were impressive but could never seem to deliver fully on their potential. By all accounts Smith’s team has done this.

As a person who finds meaningful fulfilment in his life by following international sports, I am quite sadly dependent on SuperSport. We should all be grateful for the service they provide, the sheer volume ensures that we constantly have something to occupy our minds. They do a good job which compares favourably with international standards. But they are also an evil, profit-driven corporation.

South Africa’s domestic cricket set-up was changed to a franchise system a couple of years ago, this means that there are 6 teams from all the major centres who play strength against strength and provide a tough breeding ground for the stars of tomorrow. The four-day manifestation of this is the SuperSport Series.

I went to a SuperSport Series game the other day, I counted myself as one of fifteen spectators I could see at Kingsmead (easily outnumbered by the players). This was during the school holidays, on a sunny day. I watched Morne Morkel bowl to Hashim Amla for about half an hour. On December 26 2008 more than 70 000 people turned out at the MCG to watch these two, amongst others. Hashim hit the winning runs in that game to clinch an away Test series victory in Australia. Hashim eventually nicked off to third slip (Albie, the other Morkel was bowling) where he was caught by Jacques Rudolph. Rudolph once scored a century on the fifth day to save a Test match, against Shane Warne. These are quality players.

Can we say that the poor attendance is due to the poor quality of the cricket? I don’t think so, the solid performance of our teams in the 2020 Champions League is further proof of this. The next explanation is the apathy of the fans. “Four day cricket is so boring, 2020 is the future of the game.” So all the fans in the sold-out Test matches in England, India and Australia haven’t cottoned on yet? There will always be a market for Test/double innings cricket. It is the most engaging form of the game. That’s not being a purist, that’s just having taste.

An advertising feature aired recently on SuperSport reflected on the recent successes of the national team and cited the strength of the SuperSport series as a major factor. SuperSport are apparently very proud to have supported the feeder competition for the number one Test team in the world. Clearly they play an important role in strengthening the game in this country and are contributing to national pride, over and above their role as virtual sole sports broadcaster.

But they can’t show one SuperSport series match on any of their channels. Not even a highlights package. I wonder why? This certainly does not fit with their green, gold, nickelback-anthemed image. I suspect the reason is the bottom line. No matter how hard they may try to distract us with the “massive contributions” they are making to South African sport, SuperSport are a company who exist primarily to make money. So highlights of a Premier League game between Man United and Barnsley in 1994 are obviously a more financially efficient business model than taking one for the team and showing domestic four-day cricket. It wouldn’t hurt so much if they didn’t claim credit like they do, and the worst part is that I can’t boycott it without diminishing my quality of life.

Michael de Vries teaches English at Hillcrest High School