Western Province captain Kyle Verreynne and coach Salieg Nackerdien believe CSA doesn’t care about provincial cricket.
The 2022-23 domestic season concluded last week with the Dolphins winning the 4-Day Series title.
CSA scrapped the six-team franchise system two seasons ago and replaced it with a 15-team, two-division provincial system that sees teams play just 21 matches across three formats per season (compared to a minimum of 30 in franchise cricket).
“If there’s no money involved, don’t let the domestic structure fall by the wayside. You can’t only care about international cricket,” said Nackerdien after WP’s 4-Day Series match against the EP Warriors at Newlands last week.
“It feels like there’s no care factor for the domestic competitions, to be honest.
“We have coaches’ conferences year in, year out. We put stuff on the table, we talk, we exchange ideas, but when it comes to implementation, nothing happens.
“The whole structure of CSA needs to be much better. If the guys don’t play in the professional team, they go straight to club cricket.
“What cricket is there in terms of the next level? Hopefully, they can do that this coming season and hopefully, we can play more cricket as well. That will give youngsters more exposure to first-class level.
“Because if you give a guy an opportunity for three games or four games and they do well, some of the guys won’t play in the season because of the limited amount of games.”
Verreynne, who played for the Joburg Super Kings in the SA20, questioned the impact the inaugural privately-owned franchise tournament had on the domestic season.
“As exciting as the SA20 is – I was a part of it, it’s great for cricket in this country – I think it’s a bit embarrassing that our premier domestic tournament, the four-day competition, has a game scheduled on the same day as the SA20 final.
“We played against the Dolphins – they beat us, fair enough – but they had probably seven or eight of their main players not available for that game because they were involved in the final.
“We had myself, Kyle Simmonds, Junaid Dawood, we were expected to fly at six on the morning of the four-day game had we made the final.
“If I’m being honest, it’s a bit embarrassing. As players, we weren’t taken seriously at all this season.
“The SA20 is great and I really appreciate what it’s doing for cricket in this country but, from a scheduling point of view, as players, it was a really frustrating season.
“I just really hope it’s going to change in future. From my side, it’s not good enough.”
