It was a joyous occasion in Soweto when the English cricketers played there, but some of them were not happy with their form
Cricket: Jon Swift
THERE is an assurance from all concerned that Soweto’s Elkah Oval is to become an integral part of our cricket, a fixed seasonal venue and the future site for just such a celebration of the game as the drawn tour game against England was.
But the draw was something of a bonus for the South African Invitation XI under the stewardship of Hansie Cronje.
The rain which wiped out Monday’s play left the Invitation XI chasing 379 with nine wickets still standing, something that was patently more than they were capable of in their first innings of 210.
Perhaps even as hard-bitten and uncompromising a Yorkshireman as England manager Ray Illingworth and a captain as determined as anyone in the modern game to ensure victory as Mike Atherton will concede one fact in the South African context: there could not have been a better result for history to record than no ultimate victor in a match which went a long way towards seeding the world’s most glorious game on a field which was once a refuse dump.
Gauteng Premier Tokyo Sexwale was in no doubt about the importance of the match. “A heap of hope on what was a pile of rubbish,” was Sexwale’s somewhat lyrical interpretation. But there could be no doubting his own joy as he said it. Sexwale’s eyes positively glowed with delight.
It was a delight which was echoed on the temporary stands around the humble patch of green behind the Moroka police station. There is a restless vibrancy about Soweto crowds: they sing, and seethe like an excited anthill. And they have much to bring to cricket in this still emerging nation.
There is, in essence, very little to equate with the staid crowds of the Wanderers, Newlands, Kingsmead and St George’s Park and the last England tour of South Africa under the bespectacled Mike Smith 30 years ago. And so it should be. The game, like this country, has moved on apace.
Witness to this was the somewhat staidly dressed United Cricket Board twosome, president Krish Mackerdhuj and his chief executive officer Ali Bacher, joining the incessant brass band and the young fans in a spirited rendition of Meadowlands.
That this was an anthem of the era of forced removals from Sophiatown to the South Western Township which now gives Soweto an identity of global significance — or indeed that Bacher for all his cricketing attributes could not be accused of having natural rhythm — mattered not a whit.
What mattered was the occasion. President Nelson Mandela, taking time off from the more weighty concern’s of Wednesday’s community elections, conceded this on his unscheduled opening day visit to the ground. He was enthralled and wanted to make an immediate circuit of the ground. Bacher dissuaded the great man: “There is a serious cricket match going on, Mr President,” he said. Mandela stopped and looked around him. “Yes,” he conceded, “I see that.” And then he took his place in the ululating hubbub his presence had engendered in the humble main stand.
But at morning drinks, the president engendered what must be one of the longest such intervals in modern cricket, meeting the players and then the kids in the stands. Throughout this walkabout England quickie Devon Malcolm stuck to Mandela as if tied by some invisible umbilical cord, a grin lifting even the clouds of disenchantment the England management have at present with the destroyer from Derbyshire. “I have met queens and presidents,” said Malcolm of his proximity to Mandela, “but this is it.”
It was as succinct an overall summation of the event as could be made. Cricket was not everything. And, while there were some outstanding moments in the match, there were also a series of blank spaces for England to fill in that even the gentle pace of the Soweto wicket — matched only by the speed of the foreshortened outfield — could not hide.
The gulf which is seemingly widening between Malcolm and the tour management is one such problem. On form — and from the historical fact of his 9/59 devastation of South Arica at the Oval last year — Malcolm is England’s potentially most dangerous strike bowler.
Darren Gough, Mark Ilott and Dominic Cork may have come on immeasurably since the England A tour of this country, but one suspects that even with Angus Fraser they cannot match this country’s pace attack without Malcolm.
In this department England only managed one wicket credited to the seamers — Ilott’s early first innings dismissal of Micky Arthur, caught behind by Jack Russell. By contrast, three of the five England second innings wickets to fall before Atherton declared on 282 to add to the 332 his side scored in the first dig, went to seam.
Pringle had Robin Smith for a duck to add to his first innings hat-trick — Russell lbw for 11, Mike Watkinson to another lbw decision and then yorking Ilott — with the hard-working boland paceman Henry Williams garnering the wickets of Graeme Hick and Watkinson.
Smith’s form, too, must be of concern to england. It is true that he has not played since his cheekbone was shatterd by an Ian Bishop steamer in the series against the West Indies in July, but he has looke dhesitant and out of touch so far this tour.
One fervently hopes that this is just a temproraty adjustment, for the sight of Smith in full flow is one the country of his birth should not be denied even if he now wears the colours of a traditional cricket foe.
There has also been the sight of the South African batsmen strugling — as they always seem to do — against spin. “Soweto was very slo,” owned Atherton. “The pitch was beginning to take some spin and it’s a pity the rain didn’t allow us to finish off the job.”
As well they might have. Watkinson took the only South African wicket to fall — Arthur again — before bad light put an end to the third day`’s proceedings three overs early to end with match figures of 4/42 and Richard Iillingworth finished with 6/76 to demonstrate the dominance of the slow bowlers in this partciular outing.
But on the up side, there is the impressive form of Alec Stewart, shaking off any after effects from his spate of broken fingers and notching England’s first tour century with a splendid 101 not out to ad add to the 94 he made in the first knock.
Stewart may have become almost comatose between 90 and 100 contemplating the elusive three figures, but one senses he will make a lot of runs on South African wickets this summer.
One feels that this could also be the case with Hick. Although he has to face the full onslaught of a South African pace attack, he is batsman of class and a sparkling 55 including four fours and a like number of sixes in the second innings belied the rather nondescript 15 which was the shape of his first innings effort.
Then there is the determined form of John Crawley, who added extra impetus to his claims for the No 3 spot when Mark Ramprakash, his chief challenger, fell to a stomach bug and gave Crawley a chance to substitute and again show his wares with an 85 in the first innings.
There is also Atherton, a man we have yet to see the best of. The England captain went off with his score on 22 in the second innings as a precautionary measure when his left hamstring tweaed on him. There is an aura of ability about him that will doubtless show to full effect this summer.
It all adds up to an England batting line-up that is certainly not invincible — as part-time spiner Piet STrydom’s three wickets show — but equally not to be underestimated. And it is a line-up which will give Peter Pollock and his selctors some room for further contemplation before they name the side for the first Test on Monday.
For no matter how hard Mackerdhuj and Bacher may have whistled Meadowlands in the Soweto stands, every England removal from the crease will be a forced one.