International Cricket, spotlight-free

Life in a different era

    The Cape winter has not been a regular part of my life for over a quarter of a century, at least not in its entirety. Cricket tours to one part of the world or another have spared me at least a month or two of its coldest, wettest and windiest excesses. But time has a way of levelling out life’s fairnesses and it looks like conditions will be at their most testing for the next few months.

    The final of the World Test Championship has been on-screen in my office alongside the gas heater and there is the Ashes to look forward to. But there is plenty of other cricket going on, as always, with little or no spotlight. The South Africa ‘A’ team tour of Sri Lanka may have escaped your notice. Which is how it should be.

    Almost 30 years ago national coach Bob Woolmer initiated a similar tour to Sri Lanka. The year was 1995 and the Sri Lankan Cricket Board, concerned that an SA ‘A’ team might embarrass one of their own, sought a handicap assurance by stipulating that it should be an ‘Under-24’ assignment. This suited the tourists even more. 

Kallis, Benkenstein, Chef, Woolmer, Liebenberg

    It was a time of glorious and latterly cherished innocence, if not fully appreciated at the time. It may well have been that a generation of unusually and, in some cases, extraordinarily talented young cricketers just happened to arrive at the same time and were destined to achieve remarkable things anyway.

    But the likelihood is that many of their fates were moulded on that tour and their paths to success hastened. It was an exceptional squad, by any measure. Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje were amongst those to enjoy outstanding international careers but the youngest of them all, Jacques Kallis, made the greatest impact and started one of the best careers of all time.

Kallis and his first googly

    Gerhardus Liebenberg scored three centuries on the tour including a monumental 170 not out during the three one-day games which followed the three-match series of four-day games, which the young South Africans won 1-0 before drawing the 50-over series 1-1. ‘Gerry’ ear-marked himself for a long, successful international career but he never recovered from a wretched Test series opening the batting in England three years later.

    Boje took a bagful of wickets and went on to claim 100 Test scalps to complement a fine ODI career while Zimbabwean leg-spinner Adam Huckle, selected on his SA passport, enjoyed sporadic moments of success in his homeland before becoming a pharmacist in London.

    Captain Dale Benkenstein was an astonishingly distinguished ambassador for his country, for one so young, frequently being required to make speeches and look comfortable during awkward welcoming ceremonies. He also scored runs consistently, bowled useful overs of medium pace and led the team as insightfully on the field as he did diplomatically off it.

Diplomat ‘Benky’

    Benkenstein did not fit South African cricket’s prescribed pigeon-holes. Neither a ‘genuine’ all-rounder nor a dashing batsman, he was sporadically involved with the national team, including as a never-used member of the 1999 World Cup squad, he was under-appreciated until he found his niche as captain of England’s newest first-class county, Durham, leading them to their first title. He is regarded as a legend in the north-east of the country and currently coaches Gloucestershire.

    HD Ackerman, too, was discarded too quickly from the national set-up but found a happy place with Leicestershire amidst the peak of the Kolpak exodus where he broke several county records and retains them to this day. Roger Telemachus was another who benefitted greatly from the experience without quite establishing himself at the highest level. 

    Woolmer is remembered for the ‘innovation’ of using Klusener as a pinch-hitter at number three for the Proteas on their tour of India in 1997 – he scored an unbeaten, match-winning 88 in his third ODI batting at number three – but look back at those now obscure scorecards from two years earlier and you’ll find confirmation that the coach had first made the move on that Sri Lankan tour.

    Klusener was a raw fast bowler from KZN Inland without batting pedigree, it was assumed. Woolmer saw different. And it was his time to experiment. He saw qualities nobody else had, including Klusener.   

Davis, Klusener, Ackerman

    There were others who didn’t ‘make it’ as career professionals but the process of the tour and experiences it gave them were invaluable. The financially astute Mark Bruyns always had alternative career prospects and Finlay Brooker, a left-hander with flair, remains involved in the administration of the game with Griquas.

    Mark Davis enjoyed a successful career with Northerns before moving into an equally distinguished coaching career in England while Ross Veenstra, one of those rare all rounders good enough to open both the batting and bowling, drifted quietly away from the game without making the impact many thought he might.

Lulama Masikazana and Adam Huckle

    Who knows what will come of this tour, and who may be ‘made’. Shukri Conrad and Rob Walter are both be in attendance to oversee the next generation of Proteas and there can be few better coaches in the country to make the best of the opportunity. Conrad identified Tony de Zorzi as a ‘future captain’ when he selected him for both the Tests and ODIs against the West Indies at the end of the summer. It was a nomination with considerable weight of expectation. De Zorzi may be wilting.

    There were just two reporters on that original tour – myself and the late Trevor Chesterfield. These days there is more chance of a South African journalist reporting on the underwater basket-weaving world championships than an SA ‘A’ cricket tour.

Me and Chessie

    After several travel glitches, Woolmer saw the futility of us attempting to follow the team via tuk-tuk, train and bus and invited us onto the team bus. Soon enough, we were even invited to attend certain team meetings – as observers. Happy days, although I have never contemplated such a relationship since. Players must be players and reporters must report.