lap of agony
Andy Capostagno Cricket
For Brian Lara and his beleaguered team, the agony is almost over. The fifth Test, which begins on Friday at SuperSport Centurion, is the last proper cricket that the West Indies will have to play on this tour of South Africa. From next week on Philo Wallace will be able to blast a quick 40 and get a pat on the back from his captain, rather than a kick up the backside for getting in and then getting out.
The seven-match one-day series may be a good deal closer than the one-sided Test series has been, despite the fact that South Africa are the best side in the world at the shortened game and worthy favourites for the World Cup in England in May. The Windies have fast- scoring batsmen and restrictive pace bowlers and, removed of the responsibility of trying to make matches last at least four days, they may yet blossom.
But first of all there is the problem of the fifth Test and the harsh glare of history staring at the West Indies. Defeat at Centurion would mean a 5-0 series drubbing for the first time in the history of the island collective. In 1975/76 Clive Lloyd’s team lost 5-1 to a Dennis Lillee- and Jeff Thomson- inspired Australia.
Subsequently Lloyd made the decision to abandon balanced attacks and pick four fast bowlers and the result was world domination for the best part of two decades.
One wonders what Lloyd, now the manager of the Windies, will draw from the experience of losing 5-0 to South Africa. Perhaps he will suggest that the islands need to discourage strokeplayers and encourage grinders. He would welcome a Gordon Greenidge at any time, but would be rather more desperate to find a Geoffrey Boycott who could bat for two days and still be hungry for more.
The word used by Sir Garfield Sobers during the second Test defeat at St George’s Park was “responsibility” and that above all else is what has been absent from the tourists’ game. There were signs of responsibility in the rearguard action which prolonged the fourth Test into the final afternoon at Newlands, and the lack of deterioration in the pitch suggested that if such defiance had been evident in the first innings the match could only have ended in a draw.
The pitch at Centurion is likely to be equally batsman-friendly and it is not impossible that the Windies could laugh in the face of history and defy the South African attack for the first time ever. It would only take a little of the moral fibre shown by Ridley Jacobs, among others at Newlands, and perhaps some help from the rain gods.
The latter is probably more likely than the former as rain is customary at this time of year on the highveld. Down the Ben Schoeman highway in Johannesburg the Alfred Dunhill PGA golf tournament runs from Thursday to Sunday and twice in the past three years it has spilled over into Monday due to electrical storms and rain.
The good news, however, is that this Test is not being played in late November. In 1995 when Centurion staged its first ever Test match, South Africa were due to play England between November 16 and 20. In fact the last ball was bowled at 3.25pm on the second day (November 17), and for the rest of the Test a storm of biblical proportions vented its wrath upon the manicured turf.
On the third day play was not scheduled to be called off until after tea, despite the fact that you could have paddled a canoe from the ground straight into the Hennops river. But an umpire who shall remain nameless made it a memorable day, nonetheless.
It so happened that the Springboks were playing their third Test since winning the Rugby World Cup, against England at Twickenham and those who had to be at Centurion for work purposes were lamenting the fact that they would not be able to watch the game.
At high noon the unnamed umpire marched into the press box and said, “Listen guys, officially we can’t call this thing off until after tea, but you want to watch the rugby, we want to watch the rugby . play abandoned for the day.” And they say that cricket is strangled by formality.
The Northerns Cricket Union will be hoping not for a repeat of 1995, but a re-run of last year when Hansie Cronje inspired his side to a six- wicket win over Sri Lanka at Centurion. Set 226 to win, South Africa were in trouble at 99 for three, but Cronje proceeded to blast the second fastest Test 50 of all time from 31 deliveries, the match was won and the crowd went home delirious. It would be a fitting end to a one- sided series if the estimable Cronje were to do something similar this time round.