As the Springboks face a French backlash in Paris, South Africa’s cricketers attempt to clinch a series triumph
CRICKET:V Roger Prabasarkar
ON Sunday December 8 the South African cricket team will take the first step to immortality. If Hansie Cronje becomes the first captain in the history of Test cricket to achieve the most difficult comeback in the game, he will symbolise everything that is South African cricket. Never say die, wait ’til the fat lady sings, guts and character … and all that.
The team battle has already been won. All that remains is a contest between the “winners” (South Africa) and a small group of highly talented individuals who will need to register career-high performances to stop their visitors from winning a three-Test series – for the second time – after losing the first Test.
Until Cronje resurrected the series against New Zealand in late 1995, the feat was thought to be cricket’s equivalent of raising the dead. The only previous occasion had been in the last century when WG Grace managed the feat despite having to captain the England side in a jacket and tie.
But Test cricket’s frantically changing face becomes more the prince and less the frog with every series played around the world, and Cronje’s team showed the Test-playing nations just what was possible. Ken Rutherford was so impressed he decided to stay in the land of his conqueror, and since then both Wasim Akram and Arjuna Ranatunga have repeated the feat – against Zimbabwe and Pakistan respectively.
But against India, in India, the series triumph will be considerably more of an achievement than any of the other comebacks. In the days when five days of cricket used to represent more of a test of physical endurance for players than anything else, a defensive team could ensure a draw as long as they played reasonably. Over rates were manipulated beyond normal recognition (without punishment), but more importantly, fitness levels invariably dictated that “pressure” was only ever applied to opposing batsmen for the limited period that fast bowlers and fielders were fresh and strong.
South Africa took up the mantle of fitness laid down by Australia in the early 1990s and perfected the art of body conditioning to the point where they can now maintain a consistent attack for the best part of six hours per day.
Which is exactly what India ran into at Eden Gardens in the best Test match seen in these parts for the last decade. Despite Mohammed Azharuddin’s spine-tingling 74-ball century in the midst of the Indian recovery, there was never a moment when the home team could relax and contemplate a really serious recovery. The tourists were forced to baton down the hatches until Azhar blew over, but once the storm was finished, their relentless pursuit of victory continued.
Lance Klusener, who suffered more than most while the former Indian captain was at the crease, bounced back in stunning fashion as everyone now knows. Less well publicised was the warming humility he showed immediately after the thrashing: “I would rather have been fishing at home in Natal,” he joked after Azharuddin had become only the fourth batsman in Test history to hit five consecutive boundaries in an over. “But it was also a privilege to be on the same field as him. It was an incredible experience to see a Test century scored off 74 balls, even though it was terrible for me personally.”
Cronje, incidentally, went even further in his praise of the innings, but it was Klusener’s ability to see the game in its full context, and look beyond the moment of his own worst despair, that set him apart from the average debutant fast bowler. And it was undoubtedly one of the reasons that he was able to take 8-64 in the second innings.
But, while South Africa were praising Azharuddin, Indian selectors and team members saw Azharuddin’s 15th Test century as confirmation that his career is almost at an end. It was obvious to anybody who looked beyond the brilliance of the statistics that the batsman did not care about the team, his record, the match or his place. An Indian selector had told Azharuddin before the Test that his place had been discussed after an indifferent display in the first Test at Ahmedabad.
His response at Eden Gardens, while good enough to merit additions to at least three pages in the Wisden Book of Records, contained more than a dash of petulance. The criticism he received for his recent marriage to film actress Sangita Bijlani may have been unwarranted and rather puritanical, but it has robbed him of much of his desire to play cricket at the highest level. He has become a “loner”, too, according to one member of the Indian team. “He is no longer good for our spirits …”
The lack of a genuine opener has also begun to batter morale and Nayan Mongia has been viciously criticised for failing against the pace of Donald, Klusener and McMillan. His victimisation has been unjust – nobody has fared successfully. Back-biting has once again made its home within the Indian camp and the talk of dropped catches has become a game of Chinese whispers.
Bowlers and batsmen are dividing into two camps and Sachin Tendulkar, burdened with a batting average of just 13 since he took over the captaincy three Tests ago, is powerless to bring the team back together. The euphoria of victory lasts shorter in India than anywhere else in the world, and Ahmedabad has become a faded, distant memory.
South Africa, indeed, have won the psychological war. They will surely win the series.
All that can halt them is rare individualism. Tendulkar may emulate the performance of Gary Kirsten and record a brace of centuries (in one or both innings), Javagal Srinath could have a 10-wicket match if his shameful luck at Eden Gardens is reversed, and Anil Kumble, too, could be decisive on another wicket that will undoubtedly suit his style. But Test matches are rarely won by individuals. Five days is a long time in any sport, and to succeed at the end of that time, 11 men have to function as a unit.
Kampur is barely 100 miles from the southern border of Tibet and conditions will once again be a test of the South Africans’ digestive systems, senses of humour and patience, as well as batting and bowling on a dry, spinner-friendly surface.
Afternoon temperatures will be at least half what they have become used to (between 12 and 14 degrees) while evenings will be as cool as five or six degrees. Hotels are certainly not five-star and local fans, who regard Test matches as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, will be as passionate as anywhere else in the country and will have scant thought for team privacy in their search for autographs. But all this will not matter.
If team spirit during the game against an Indian A team in Nagpur was anything to go by, then South Africa’s has become indestructable. The unbeaten 200 from Herschelle Gibbs was final proof of an extraordinary talent and raised team morale even higher. During one drinks break on the second day, the tourists were in such jaunty high-jinks that they even lit fire-crackers on the outfield. The whole mood was summed up by Paul Adams, who celebrated his second wicket with a handstand filk-flak in the middle of the wicket! Put simply, South Africa have won more than half the battle, because, as Don Bradman said, “80% of this game is played in the head”.