Dear Andrew,
WOULD it be presumptious to assume that along with the pain there was a touch of relief when you found that you’d been dropped for the third Test? Given your recent run of poor form and the fact that having a bat between your hands seems to turn you into a player who utterly lacks conviction, the selectors’ decision must’ve struck you as merciful.
Hopefully you’ll score runs for Natal against Pakistan, be taken to New Zealand and never look back. Then again, there are other scenarios doing the rounds and we both know what they are.
The nightmare started in England where, ironically, you scored your one and only century in the last and least important match of the tour — the game against a World XI at the Scarborough Festival. Then it was back here for the start of the domestic season, the Tests and the round of one-day internationals. Even against Pakistan at the Wanderers where you scored 70-odd, you never looked entirely comfortable, and against Sri Lanka in Port Elizabeth you looked positively schizophrenic: clubbing your way to an attractive 27 as though the spirit of Mark Greatbatch had entered your body.
I don’t know if you’ve asked yourself if you’re the same player that scored 163 against the West Indies on debut but I certainly have. Take consolation in the fact that to my knowledge there is no-one playing Test cricket today who achieved what you achieved that day in Bridgetown. Also take consolation in the fact that many of the finest players playing Test cricket today have suffered from a temporary loss of form at one time or another, often coinciding (as in your case) with exposure to radically different conditions to home.
Mark Waugh went to Sri Lanka a couple of years ago and didn’t score a run; the young Indian sensation Vinod Kambli scored very few runs against the visiting West Indians recently; Richie Richardson played for Yorkshire last season without getting 1 000 runs. You know what has happened to Robin Smith (and he’s played at least 25 more Tests than you) and Daryll Cullinan in recent years. These things are inevitable given the competitive and ever-changing nature of international cricket. The lesson — and I apologise for being trite – – is how to put them behind you and come out of them a better player.
You will put these things behind you because you are already a very fine player. Whereas some players in the South African side are either predominantly front foot (Cronje), or back foot players (McMillan), you play well off the front and back foot, thus increasing your options as both a defensive and an attacking player; you are a good height for a batsman; you pull ferociously when given the opportunity but your crisp cover drives can be sublime. In fact, you’re the complete package: watchful, alert, upright, elegant.
Finally, spare a thought for your fans. There can be no more agonising experience than watching a favourite player unravel before your eyes. It’s like watching someone being struck down with a mystery virus about which you can do nothing. Get well soon Andrew. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life watching Rudi Steyn doing a passable impression of a platteland Geoff Boycott.
Yours,
Luke Alfred