There’s no reason to pretend that the one-off T20 between the Springboks and the Proteas, which took place at the Wanderers on Friday night, was meant to be serious. It wasn’t. And very few pretended otherwise.

From Dale Steyn cutting his first over short to take a “selfie” with Victor Matfield and the crease to Faf du Plessis doing his best Jose Mourinho impression, there’s no doubt that the sole purpose of the match was to entertain.

But there was method to the madness. While the two sides have squared off before, this event was billed as the “Mandela Legacy Cup” and could become an annual event on the calendar. In partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the day served as a fundraiser for the Foundation. The more cynical will perhaps be wondering how many more things can carry the name of the former president, but in this instance, it was apt.

At least every single player and person attending the match knew exactly who they were honouring. Unlike ice hockey player Jonathan Bernier… During an event on Friday night, called “The Giant of Africa”, where the Toronto Raptor honoured the late president, Bernier got a bit confused. When asked how important he thought the legacy of Mandela was, he said: “He’s been a tremendous athlete I watched growing up.”

At least everyone in South Africa, young and old, knew exactly who Mandela was, and everyone in attendance on Friday night knew which legacy they were honouring. It is vital, in order for events like this to be sustainable, that this legacy is carried forward.

Mandela himself believed in the power of sport and was a strong believer in the camaraderie between national teams. Much of that was on show on Friday night and it’s something that’s fairly unique to South Africa. On the rare occasion that the international teams are touring the same country together, they regularly attend each other’s matches. This is certainly not unique to South Africa, but it’s an important part of the national sporting identity. Could you, for example, imagine the English rugby and cricket team partaking in a similar exercise? You’d have to be fairly deluded to answer “yes”.

In an era where sportsmen are often accused of being out of the public reach and coming across as aloof, outings such as these add a human element to the players. It’s not easy to hide when you are taken completely out of your comfort zone – and every single player was taken out theirs on Friday night. It’s easy for events such as this to become a hodgepodge of stilted awkwardness, but there was none of that on Friday.

It also offered the opportunity to see just how versatile some of South Africa’s sporting stars are.

The cricket was preceded by signing sessions, kicking and six-hitting competitions. Wayne Parnell won the kicking competition while Willie le Roux took a tremendous one-handed catch during the match. While neither are about to switch codes, it was just another layer of entertainment.

The concept of switching sides isn’t exactly new. The franchise teams of both rugby and cricket have often played each other in T20 matches in the last few years, but none have been such a massive drawcard as the Proteas and Springboks match.

Even with such big names on show, it’s impressive that 20,000 people pitched up at the Wanderers to watch the spectacle. We’re living in an era where, having the chance of watching from the comfort of a couch with pause and rewind TV, fans don’t often go out of their way to attend live sport. Numbers for both domestic and international cricket have been dwindling in recent years, so for the public to turn out in their droves must mean that the organisers are doing something right.

That the Springboks won by six wickets hardly matters. That there was an element of marketing to the event, which helped make it a success, didn’t really matter either. What mattered was that, when taken it its essence, it was just a little bit of fun for both the players and spectators. All the better that it was for a good cause. DM