Neil Manthorp : Cricket
South Africa’s cricketers have both endured and enjoyed a very, very long week in Perth since their arrival last Friday. The veterans of the 1994 tour, and the 1992 World Cup, wasted little time in reacquainting themselves with the delights of southern hemisphere hospitality while the Oz rookies discovered just what the seniors had meant by “it’s a different world down there”.
But the first few days were tense. While the local pay and conditions dispute between the ACB (administrators) and ACA (players) continues to simmer, the South African management have managed brilliantly to distance themselves from the bitter wrangle without ever appearing insensitive to either side.
Do not be fooled by appearances. Moments after walking into the airport terminal, before clearing customs or passport control, an ACB official approached the squad and asked to speak privately to manager Alan Jordaan, coach Bob Woolmer and captain Hansie Cronje. Eyebrows were raised but there was no panic … yet.
A jocular comment from one of the players elicited a disturbing response from the stone-face official.
“Oh dear, don’t tell us the tour has been cancelled?”
“That, I’m afraid,” replied the man in the blazer, “is a very real possibility.”
Since then the national players have withdrawn their threat to strike but the pain of the arguments involved is as clear as a high resolution photograph on the faces of Steve Waugh (ACA secretary), Shane Warne (treasurer) and captain Mark Taylor. The officials, too, look drawn and haggard.
“The team is divided, the administrators don’t give a shit and the country is confused. The Australian team has never been this vulnerable … not for 10 years. You blokes will never have a better chance of victory,” commented the local cricket writer of the West Australian newspaper at a braai – sorry, barbecue – held on Saturday night.
Without wishing to appear ungrateful for the internecine strife that may help the visitors in their quest for victory, there are several other reasons to feel optimistic.
The squad’s practice and net sessions have been carried out closer to the “cutting edge” than ever before – bowlers working with only 5% less venom than there would be in a Test match and batsmen selling their wickets at an impossibly high price.
Young Makhaya Ntini was as keen as the hottest French mustard to impress his new teammates during the first full net practice and was also delighted at the bounce and pace he achieved on the liveliest surfaces he has ever encountered.
A combination of these two factors, added to an utter lack of street wisdom and a void in knowledge of net etiquette, ended with the Xhosa warrior serving up not one but two bouncers to none other than Brian McMillan.
Fifty-five minutes later the net session came to a momentary halt as players looked around for the source of the resounding “gong” that shattered the gentle sounds of bat on ball and grunting that normally characterises busy nets.
A very wobbly Ntini, at the batting end
this time, managed to maintain his balance before righting himself and shaking the stars and cobwebs from his head. He then picked up the ball that had just crashed into the left side of his batting helmet and tossed it back to McMillan before his face creased into a broken-toothed grin.
McMillan caught the ball, winked, and walked back to the top of his run-up. In time Ntini will know exactly what that wink meant and he won’t forget it. In the nicest possible way it said, “Welcome, you have come to play with the big boys now. Just make sure you know the rules and understand them.”
Anyone who does know the rules, of course, can play as hard as they like. But no quarter is asked or given. If it was, it just might happen out in the middle.
Ntini, as expected, has been the subject of many radio, TV and newspaper interviews. Generally he has handled them all admirably.
He does appear, sometimes, to be a little “over-trained” with his responses but not many 20-year-olds can write “good with spontaneity” on their cvs.
Far more importantly, when his performance really mattered – on the field – he was a revelation. Forget the significance of him being the first black man to play for South Africa, forget him representing the first shred of success (at senior level) for the development programme. Forget that.
If Ntini had been white the expectations of his teammates would have been the same when he played the ACB Chairman’s XI at Lilac Hill on Tuesday. All that was hoped for was “to get through”. To bowl his quota of overs without succumbing to nerves and without being collared by the opposition batsmen.
He actually did more than that. “I was delighted with the way he bowled. Really chuffed,” said Woolmer afterwards. Allan Donald, his role model and mentor on the tour, was equally satisfied. “Forget those comments about him being a development selection. I reckon he’ll be the revelation of the tour. I believe he will go on to hold a place in the national side, on merit of course, for a very long time.
“For goodness sake, if people tried thinking of him as a 20-year-old cricketer and not a black 20-year-old cricketer – then they’d see what I mean.”
Ntini wasn’t chosen for the current match, a four-day game against Western Australia at the famous WACA, because the current Test match XI was given an outing.
Jacques Kallis has returned from his appendectomy to rclaim the number three batting position from McMillan, which means that one on the spinners – Pat Symcox or Paul Adams – is likely to stand down.
Although Woolmer was also pleased with the way Adams performed during the Lilac Hill match, 37-year-old Symcox remains the number-one spinner so “Gogga” is likely to carry the drinks.
Western Australia, like every other state side in Australia, will be trying their damnedest. Regular winners of the Sheffield Shield but still without a representative in the national side, the isolated capital city sports a cricketing inferiority complex to rival any of South Africa’s minor provinces.
Beating South Africa, as they see it, would be the best and most satisfying way of ramming the choices of the national selectors down their throats.
ENDS