Gustav Thiel : Cricket
Professional sportsmen never want to retire. If they had their way, they would play into their graves. Cricketers are no exception, which is why a bunch of the world’s top players of yesteryear are now considering starting a seniors league similar to those already flourishing in golf and tennis.
Talk of this new league has been going on for some time between retired cricketers, who are only too aware of the fact that they missed out on the big paydays that today’s players enjoy.
Some of the biggest names that paraded the great cricket stadia of the world in the Seventies and Eighties are currently in South Africa for a three-match series between a World XI and a local XI. The series started on Wednesday at Centurion Park in Pretoria, moves to Kingsmead in Durban today (Friday) and concludes at Newlands in Cape Town next Wednesday.
The South African team, which is led by Clive Rice, includes greats like Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards, Peter Kirsten and Garth le Roux. The international team includes the West Indians Sylvester Clarke, Desmond Haynes, Joel Garner, Ezra Mosley and Viv Richards, Englishmen Derek Randall and Gladstone Small and Pakistani great Zaheer Abbas.
Kirsten said in an interview with the Mail & Guardian this week that he would be in favour of a seniors tour. “I definitely think there is enough interest among the players and spectators to sustain such a tour. I don’t know what form it would take, but I would like nothing better to get my kit out every now and then to play again.
“I mean, with the amount of money that the players are making now, it might be sensible to play again. I have already given my bank account number to my brother, Gary, who is not doing so badly now,” said Kirsten, who is now head of the Super Juice Cricket Academy in the Boland and Western Province after a stint where he was involved as player and coach at Border.
Kirsten said he misses the thrill and nervous energy before big matches, and the current three-match series will give him the opportunity to test his considerable skills against fearsome strike bowlers like Mosley and Garner.
“I am a bit under-prepared to face these guys, but will see how it goes. I only had two nets in preparation,” he said. He added that Richards and Pollock, considered by many to be two of the finest batsmen of all time (English test umpire Dickie Bird recently unequivocally said we will never see the likes of Richards again), probably need no practice to perform again. “I think Pollock might be a bit slower now, but then he was never one of the most energetic players around,” Kirsten said.
Mosley, the West Indian bowler known for generating lightning speed off a short run- up, said he was ecstatic to be back in South Africa, having played provincial cricket for Eastern Province and Northern Transvaal. He was also part of the original rebel tour in the Eighties, which led to a seven-year ban, effectively scuppering his promising Test career.
But Mosley says he has no regrets about his decision. “Although I ended up playing two Tests for my country, I had a good cricketing life. I must say though that it will be fantastic to play cricket again on a semi-full-time basis. Some of these old guys can still play a mean game,” he enthused, adding that although Sylvester Clarke is now 42 years old, he is still the most feared bowler in club cricket in the Caribbean.
Mosley, who now lives in Barbados and is involved in coaching there, says he is looking for a coaching job in South Africa. “The game is so vibrant here, which cannot be said of the West Indies where American sports are taking over. Maybe us older guys can once again show the youngsters how the game should be played.”
Although there are no official plans for a seniors tour, both Kirsten and Mosley say the players are discussing it on an informal basis.
If they get their way, we might soon see the past greats playing long past their cricketing salad days into a twilight zone where talent has to take care of failing physical abilities. But then again, a genius like Pollock would still be able to crash the little red ball through the covers even if he was in a wheelchair.
ENDS