Fire Season before the WTC Final
And IPL reality
South Africa’s participation in the 1992 World Cup was a last-minute, haphazard and glorious roller-coaster of a ride which began with a stop-over in Harare on route to Perth and Sydney for an unofficial ODI warm-up which the visitors won by six wickets.
Who’d have thought that, 33-years later, they might do something similar before a very different sort of World Cup. Discussions are taking place which could see the Proteas Test squad once again stopping over in the Zimbabwean capital for some much needed red-ball cricket before the World Test Championship final at Lord’s on June 11.
The English summer fixture list is already at bursting point and prospects of a quality warm-up match against the England Lions have dwindled, if they ever existed. Besides, whatever the ECB and the counties might have agreed to would have to be offered reciprocally to Australia. So another plan is required and preparing in the dead of the South African winter would be neither fun nor fruitful. The nights might be cold in the Zimbabwean off-season but the days are warm and dry and the locals fully accustomed to winter cricket.
The majority of the likely starting XI at Lord’s are currently at the IPL and will have, depending on knock participation, a maximum of two weeks to get ready for what might be the most influential match of their careers and the future of the game in their country.
The entire infrastructure of the IPL, from the franchises to the schedule and off-field commitments is more emotionally draining than most of us could possibly imagine. While 5:00am flights and three-hour photo-shoots can be bothersome, they are a part of the package and the mostly very generous salary package.
It is the ‘softer’ challenges which often weigh far heavier. The personal organisation skills which are required to live an itinerant lifestyle for 10 weeks are under-developed in most young sports people and often absent. As is the ability to cope with being a second or third choice cricketer. Or a no choice player.
It’s all well and good being told before the tournament starts that you’re ostensibly a ‘reserve’ and that game-time will be limited, but the reality is a different beast to the theory. Besides, most coaches don’t say that. They’d rather keep everyone ‘alert’ by assuring them that competition for places is open.
This season has seen fewer international players used during the tournament than ever before. For the first dozen years it was inconceivable that a team would start a match without its full quota of four international players. Gradually, once the precedent had been set, more and more coaches were happy to leave one out. Last week, in a match between Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals, there were just two internationals in the starting XIs of both teams, although both used a third as their Impact Player.
Indian players are becoming better and better, at a younger and younger age, and international players are becoming increasingly burnt out by the demands of justifying usually huge salaries. Team owners and sponsors are notoriously impatient and, although 14 group matches may seem plenty of time to find form, many are dropped after just three or four failures. It messes with their minds and can affect their international careers.
Despite supplying 17 players to this year’s tournament the Proteas aren’t as adversely affected as some other countries with the likes of Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje having either retired or shown a disinclination towards international cricket. Marco Jansen, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram and David Miller are all regular starters and have, mostly, enjoyed successful campaigns.
But what of Lungi Ngidi and Gerald Coetzee? Neither has made an appearance – are they even still in Bangalore and Ahmedabad? Kagiso Rabada went home over two weeks ago for ‘personal reasons’ and has not returned. Wiaan Mulder has played a few overs as an Impact Substitute in Hyderabad but otherwise it has been an unrelenting schedule of nets, packing, travelling, ordering room service and making Zoom calls home. For Mathew Breetzke and Kwena Maphaka the novelty (and money) presumably make everything more than worthwhile but let’s see how that goes if they’re still under-appreciated travelling reserves in a couple of years’ time.
“It’s a tough gig, it really is, and what makes it harder is that you can’t talk about it because you’re not going to get any sympathy,” one of the South African contingent said last week. “If you say something to team management then you run the risk of never being selected and you’d never say anything publicly because people think it’s a life of glamour and luxury. Truth is, it can be bloody lonely…”
Markram, Rickelton, Stubbs and Jansen should all be starters in the XI for the World Test Championship final on June 11, two weeks after the IPL final. At least they are running around and fit. Hopefully Rabada will be again, soon. But for Mulder, Ngidi and Coetzee to press their case for the one-off Lord’s Test they will have to rely on proving their fitness in the short window the squad have together before they travel to London.
How times have changed.
(*The photos? It is fire season in Cape Town and we’ve had a particularly ‘busy’ weekend hence the delayed column. Thought I’d share some of the drama with you. It is fascinating what you put in an evacuation ‘grab bag’ at 10-minutes notice. Passport, laptop…Running shoes, anyone?)
