Neil Manthorp in Chelmsford : Cricket
The memory of the 1994 tour still sits in the palate of South African cricket like old garlic. The glory of Lord’s, the passion of the defensive draw at Headingley, and then the crumbling edifice at the end. Devon Malcolm’s crushing 9-57 at the Oval was only the beginning.
In case people forget, the team travelled to The Hague in Holland after the Test series had ended in tears and they lost there, too. By eight wickets. To Holland.
Coach Mike Procter didn’t travel to Holland, and neither did captain Kepler Wessels. Procter’s absence, and the subsequent humiliation of the game, contributed hugely to his dismissal. Wessels had different reasons for his absence (Procter was adjudicating the man- of-the-match award in England’s domestic one-day final, the captain was spending time with his family) but he was missed nonetheless. His respect within the squad dipped, too.
Worse was to come when the team, tired and utterly fed-up, travelled to Scarborough for a festival match that was as welcome as the arctic temperatures, greasy fish and chips and 1960s hotel rooms that the town offered. Morale was lower then as it has ever been since 1991. It wasn’t reported much, but the tour ended in a mess.
It must not happen again.
But it might. If the fifth Test ends disastrously, the team will have a meaningless one-day game against an England second XI followed by one-day internationals against the host nation and Sri Lanka. Don’t even bet on an appearance in the final. Fine; that’s “worst case scanario”.
Reasons for South Africa’s failure in the fourth Test: Gerry Liebenberg has been a terrible failure as Gary Kirsten’s partner, not only in Nottingham. Lance Klusener has been missed more than anyone was prepared to admit he might. Paul Adams is going through an entirely understandable, and predictable, slump in form. There was an innate “softness” in the approach of the side when the chips were down on the last couple of days.
Solutions: Brian McMillan opens in place of Liebenberg. Pat Symcox plays in place of Adams and Makhaya Ntini replaces Steve Elworthy.
Seems simple. The risks, however, are substantial. But the reward, if it comes, would be a series win.
The “in-your-face” attitude of Symcox on the field is difficult to quantify but the facts are irrefutable. His presence, almost like that of Jonty Rhodes’s, has had an effect on the team’s results over the years that he has played. Brian McMillan is still as highly regarded by the England camp as he was in 1994 and 1995 when England toured South Africa.
“We’ve been hoping he wouldn’t play throughout the series,” said England coach David Lloyd at a private dinner party on the fourth day of the Trent Bridge Test. “His approach to the game can be completely intimidating to opposition players; only blokes as tough as Mike Atherton can really stand up to him for an extended period of time.”
Reputation can count for an awful lot in this game, particularly in a one-off situation. The same applies to Symcox. Whatever the thoughts may be as to his wicket-taking capabilities, he is the second spinner in the squad and he must play because the number one has lost form badly. Besides, a cutting comment from the old man in the gully can have as much – if not more – effect than a raking arm-ball.
Gary Kirsten has always been unhappy about sharing his job with a “part-timer”, but this time he has no choice other than compromise; privately he has accepted that to continue with poor Liebenberg as his partner is suicide.
If McMillan survives for no more than half an hour at the top of the innings, he will have issued more withering stares than Liebenberg has managed in his career. South Africa missed that in the last Test.
The reasons for Adams’s slump are probably more varied than anyone dare imagine but the only realistic solution is to encourage without trying to coax, to appreciate without showing disappointment. No one has really found his “level” yet but he has a great deal about him. He is being trusted, as a person and a cricketer, and that is absolutely right.
When the “zip” goes missing from a leg spinner it is like the fan-belt breaking in a car; everything might still look perfect but you just can’t drive it, as much as you may want to.
He knows more about his bowling than anyone else (after all he invented it) and he knows better than anyone why there is no snap or ping at the moment. The truth is, like everyone else on tour, he is suffering significantly from the amount of time spent away from home. When this tour ends he will have been on the road for a year; he bowls like he feels. And who can blame him?
Mark Boucher, too, is having a hard time. He blames himself for affecting the course of the Test match with the dropped catch that allowed Nasser Hussain to carry on chirping Allan Donald, but he will be just fine.
He said after the match, only half in jest, that he knew what David Beckham felt like once the English nation turned against him after his sending off against Argentina in the soccer World Cup.
In his heart, though, he knows better than that. In fact, when he was drowning a few sorrows on the night of the Test defeat (and bloody right, too) his attitude was one of determined vengeance.
Far from being hurt by his fall from the merry-go-round, here was a young boy who wanted to get back on immediately and go even faster. He is an Ian Healy in the making, he really is.
But back to the present. The smell of four- year-old garlic is very, very strong.
Technically there is nothing lacking in the South African side that precludes them from beating England and banishing that smell forever, but the amount of character required will be colossal.
Cronj must provide his men with more of sport’s secret ingredient than ever before; the ingredient, of course, being “it”.
That’s why Symcox and McMillan will probably play. Whatever it is that they have, they have “it”.
David Lloyd is the first to admit that he doesn’t really know why McMillan has the effect he has on the England team: “He’s just got something about him,” he says with a shake of the head. “He’s just got it.”