With no cricket coming up for a while, we could have a bleak winter

 SA WASN’T the only country to have its international schedule compromised when the big three countries staged their coup for the administration and financial leadership of the world game just more than a year ago.

It has resulted in a bizarre and frustrating hiatus that sees the Proteas playing a money-making one-day international (ODI) triangular with the West Indies and Australia in Barbados and Antigua in June before waiting until August before they play Test cricket again — against New Zealand in Durban and Centurion.

Following that, there are three Tests in Australia in November, a full tour by Sri Lanka in January and February and then a visit to New Zealand for three Tests and five ODIs. But very little between now and the end of the year.

The good news is that Cricket SA have tied up reciprocal tour commitments with India and England for the next seven years. That provides critical security for financial planning.

Australia, too, have committed to home and away tours, but are happier to make changes to the itinerary to suit their own purposes.

Ever since Cricket SA, under Gerald Majola’s executive, chose not to sacrifice a prime-time home season once every four years in order to be Australia’s guests of honour at the Boxing Day and New Year Tests in Melbourne and Sydney, they have become the warm-up act for the Australian summer.

Cricket Australia used to pay Cricket SA compensation for lost earnings but, in a different economic climate with different exchange rates, it was deemed insufficient. The Boxing Day Test at the MCG is, however, one of the world’s great sporting occasions — inside or outside cricket — and the experience gained by South African players changed their careers.

Common sense, and cricket sense, will return one day and future generations of Proteas will have the experience of playing the ultimate form of the game in front of 70,000 people in one of the world’s most iconic and inspiring stadiums, but it won’t happen until at least 2021.

So the short-term future off the field may seem a little bleak, but mid-and long-term it is bright.

There are even, finally, serious attempts being made to attend to the lack of context that currently exists in bilateral series outside a couple of "classics", such as the Ashes, India-England and SA against Australia and England.

The Test Championship, officially launched three years ago and then canned by the big-three leader Narayanaswami Srinivasan, could be set for a comeback.

The future is only bright off the field if it is also bright on the field. At the moment, the dismal showing at the ICC World Twenty20 has left everyone feeling a little bleak.

And with no cricket other than the Indian Premier League coming up to cheer everyone up, we could be in for a long winter.

It’s also a time for the Cricket SA administration and coaching infrastructure to start working hard and planning for the future. There are some tough decisions to be made, and they involve making a couple of huge U-turns on previous strategies.

Over a decade ago, it seemed sensible to amalgamate 11 provinces into six franchises because strength-versus-strength made sense.

Now things have changed. Transformation is both a commercial and moral imperative but, for now, the playing strength of the nation has become untenably frail.

Two more franchises, perhaps even three, need to be added to the system to prevent the current number of quality cricketers from sitting on their backsides or playing in the amateur provincial competition that, for a long time, has existed in a malaise and failed to make any progress on standards or produce potential international players.

It may seem counter intuitive, but Cricket SA has benefited financially from the cancellation of the Champions League in which it was a 20% stakeholder along with Australia (30%) and India (50%).

When the broadcaster cancelled its 10-year deal with half of it unfulfilled, Cricket SA benefited to the tune of about R400m.

Spent wisely, that amount of money could virtually guarantee a future as bright on the field as off it over the next two decades.

The Indian Premier League will take our best players away again for a couple of months after the T20 World Cup is over and we will follow them with moderate interest.

As always, India’s domestic T20 tournament will provide occasionally decent bar wallpaper at evening sundowners. But there are a lot more important things at stake behind the scenes and closed doors.