The Very Great Vince van der Bijl...

Changing the World, one child at a time

One of the greatest of all South African cricketers, and people, asked me to introduce him before a talk at the UCT Summer School on Tuesday, Jan 28. It was a great honour and one which I will always cherish. Here, with a 24-hour exclusive window, is what I will say. Roughly… (There is still time to attend, if you are in Cape Town!)

“The most common and popular label attached to VINTCENT ADRIAAN PIETER van der BIJL – amongst cricket people, anyway – is “the best player never to play international cricket.” It’s an easy label, not necessarily because we are all a bit lazy – but because it is almost certainly true. It’s just not something we can prove…

Vince asked me not to include “too much cricket” in this introduction which is like introducing the Pope and being asked to “go easy on the religious stuff” – but I’ll do my best…

It’s a double-edged sword having a famous and successful father – you have something to aspire to but, as Vince remembers all too well even at the age 76, he was introduced as “Pieter’s son” throughout his childhood. So, here is Pieter’s son…

Father Pieter was a Rhodes Scholar, headmaster at Bishops Prep, a war hero who’s cricket career was ended by his injuries but not before he fell just three runs short of becoming the first South African to score a century in each innings of a Test match when he made 125 and 97 vs England in the famous Timeless Test of 38/39.

Vince was an all-round sportsman with athletics and rugby to the fore but Varsity in Maritzburg in 1967 was the first time he wasn’t routinely known as “Pieter’s son” – and the start of his own cricket career. He was SA Cricketer of the Year in 1971 and named in the national squad to tour Australia at the end of the year – the one that never travelled.

He played 101 Currie Cup matches for Natal and never missed a game through injury for 14 seasons during which he set record after record, many of which still stand today – and almost certainly will forever. 75 wickets first-class wickets in 81/82 at an average of under-15 is just one…

Cricket is a team game, of course, and although some of the best individuals have treated it otherwise, the very best players judge their careers by what’s in the trophy cabinet. He captained Natal from 1976 to 1980 – it was very rare in those days for bowlers to be captains, especially fast bowlers – and they won the domestic ‘double’, Currie Cup and one-day Gillette Cup.

1981 was the first, and only, year Vince was paid to play the game. He was recruited by Middlesex in the English County Championship and was generously given six months off from his job in the ‘real world’ to play. The captain, Mike Brearley, remains one of the most celebrated cricket captains ever. He was sceptical, having been uninvolved in Vince’s recruitment. A white South African, at the height – or depth – of Apartheid, in a team containing an unprecedented, at the time, no less than five players of West Indian descent.

In a matter of weeks it was clear that Vince was a hit – he formed one of the most devastating on-field bowling partnerships in county cricket history with Wayne Daniel and won the hearts of supporters at Lord’s and around the country with his joyous love of the game and not just willingness but desire to engage with supporters, encouraging and responding to banter from the crowds, during and after games.

He took 85 wickets in the championship that year – which obviously Middlesex won -and added another Gillette Cup in another memorable double. For those of you who’ve not had the opportunity to travel to England and visit Lord’s, let me assure they still talk about the ‘Season of Vince’ to this day – 44 years later. He finished his career with 767 first-class wickets at 16.54 and the most ever in the Currie Cup, certainly a record which will never be broken.

Vince was included in the esteemed author and cricket historian, John Woodcock’s “Greatest 100 Cricketers of all Time” book and former England captain, Mike Gatting, with whom he also played at Middlesex, compared him to the great West Indian fast bowler, Joel Garner, with the addendum – “only Vince was better.”

But enough of that. Sorry Vince…

Cricket, and sport, is what we do, not who we are. It’s a concept I’ve lived my life by but it was devastating as a young lad when you wanted to believe, and did believe, your warrior-heroes were the same people on either side of the boundary rope. But Vince taught me otherwise and he remains a magnificent and inspiring figure of difference today, more and more with every day.

Vince taught history and English at Maritzburg College before moving into a business career and returned to cricket as Cricket South Africa’s High Performance director. He was recruited by the game’s international governing body - the ICC – as director of umpires and match referees in 2008 and retired in 2015. Shortly afterwards he was diagnosed with the first of two bouts of cancer which he admits “stopped me in my tracks.” It was touch and go but the world is a better place for the fact that he pulled through.

Vince was drawn to Ukhanyo Primary School in Masiphumelele, one of the densest townships in the country with around 50,000 shack-dwelling residents crowded into less than half a square kilometre. There are over 3500 children in just two schools, 30% of the High School learners live without a parent or an adult. Vince founded MasiSports using sport as a catalyst to improving lives on the principle of holistic education including academics and life skills as well as physical activity, all within the school grounds and overseen by the school Principals and their dedicated staff.

Using his contacts in the worlds of cricket and business Vince and his team, and the teachers at both schools, have transformed the lives of thousands of young learners, not temporarily with meals and handouts but with basic and higher education – giving them hope for the future where often there had been none.

As Vince says: “The Springboks have won four rugby World Cups with 95% of the country’s schools not offering any formally organised sport. Imagine the untapped potential.”

Today there are multiple Masi sports teams at various age-groups, including girls who are experiencing safe and nurturing environments for the first time. Vince encountered hundreds of kids who had never walked on a beach, or seen one, yet it was only a few kilometres away – about half of the kids in Masi had never been to Cape Town. Today that is all changing. Vince says that ‘privilege’ provides you with a duty to help those less fortunate than yourself, but too few of us do that – and very, very few do so as emphatically and with as much love, care and humility as Vince.

And finally, Bev, Vince’s wife and best friend for over half a century. She had no idea he was a cricketer when they met and cared little for the sport. But she knew a good man when she saw one, and one that would probably need quite a bit of looking after. From Maritzburg to Cape Town, to Dubai and back to Fishhoek, through good times and bad, including the cancer, Bev has been there. Thank You, Bev.”

Finally, never mind coffees or subscriptions to this column. If you feel like making a real difference to young lives that really matter, please consider visiting the Masisport website. The smallest amount can make a big difference.

Love to all.