Moroney suits South African cricket, not CSA’s board

SOUTH AFRICA CRICKET

Moroney was a member of the last national men’s selection panel [File Photo] © Getty

Patrick Moroney isn’t often seen in a jacket and tie, and that’s good. Because the last thing South Africa need as the outcome of the CSA board’s regressive hankering for the bad old days of selectors is the appointment of a damn fool suit.

Moroney was named on Thursday to the oddly titled position of “convenor selector for the Proteas men’s team”, effective August 1. Cricbuzz has established that the post is fulltime and that Moroney has been contracted for three years.

A release said he would “report to Enoch Nkwe, [CSA’s] director of national teams and high performance, and work closely with the head coach”. Now there’s a relief. A good chunk of South Africa’s success is owed to Nkwe’s meticulous work, and Shukri Conrad has proved himself unarguably the most competent person in CSA’s employ.

Much like Nkwe and Conrad, Moroney has come through the structures. He has been a high school director of sport and marketing, worked on talent identification programmes, served as convenor of selectors for the Lions, and for CSA’s academy, emerging and under-19 teams.

“His deep understanding of the game, combined with decades of experience in talent identification and selection across various levels, makes him the ideal person for the job,” the release quoted Nkwe as saying.

Moroney was also a member of the last national men’s selection panel before it was scrapped in January 2023. Since then squads and teams have been picked solely by head coaches.

Can it be a coincidence that the only senior men’s World Cup final South Africa have yet reached – the 2024 T20I version in Barbados, where they lost to India by a scant seven runs – happened when then white-ball head coach Rob Walter, and only him, picked the side?

Is it an accident that the selectorial buck started and stopped with Conrad in South Africa’s fairytale WTC campaign – which culminated in the happy ending of a five-wicket win over Australia in the final at Lord’s last month?

Can CSA’s board, specifically the members who are presidents of provincial affiliates, not see the folly of going back to a failed approach? Clearly not. Could it be that they detest efficiency and success? Long years of putting up with these decrepit, damaging denizens of the game leave us with only one possible answer to that question. Being exposed as South African cricket’s weakest link could lead to them being bid goodbye

Patrick Moroney ©Cricbuzz

Why, then, should we welcome Moroney’s appointment? Doesn’t it signify a kick from a horse that most of us wish could be consigned to the glue factory far beyond the sunset?

Because he isn’t among them. Moroney – like Nkwe, Conrad and Eddie Khoza, CSA’s executive for domestic cricket, and a host of people at CSA’s offices and in the provinces – helps keep cricket on its feet despite the provincial presidents’ negligence and nefariousness.

If CSA must have selectors, as the board have decided, they could do worse than give the convenor’s job to Moroney. But it isn’t unalloyed good news. Cricbuzz has confirmed that an independent selector will be appointed to form a three-person panel with Moroney and Conrad. What are the chances of the board also getting that right? We shall see, but we are holding our breath.

Someone who has been shot in too many of the CSA board’s bumbling movies messaged Moroney soon after news of his appointment broke. They didn’t say hello. They didn’t congratulate him. They said only, “Thank God it’s you.” They didn’t say, because they didn’t have to, “And not some damn fool suit”.

© Cricbuzz