Neil Manthorp
Cricket
Sometime in the mid-1980s Malta’s football team manager said, after a 9-0 reverse against Italy in a European Championship qualifier, “We need to work on our defence a bit, but there were some good things …”
With the same delicious sense of understatement, Zimbabwe’s embattled cricket captain Alistair Campbell admitted a few days before Friday’s Test against South Africa, “We’re going through a bit of a bad patch at the moment.”
Yes, they are. Rather.
It’s not just results, but injuries, retirements and a sporting public with the forgiveness of stoned terrorists that are making life so ticklish for Campbell and his men at the moment. In fact, the odds are so strongly stacked against Zimbabwe that we can safely bet our houses on a South African victory at Springbok Park, the world’s 80th Test venue.
Heath Streak’s absence from the Zimbabwean attack is critical. He had knee surgery just over three months ago, returned to take 5-93 in the one-off Test against Australia two weeks ago and then watched as the joint imitated a puffa fish.
The Zimbabwean management are disappointed, to say the least, but not afraid to speculate about the big hunter’s potential fitness had he eaten a little less of what he shot and subjected his repaired cartilage to less stress.
Three men will compete to fill Streak’s place. Henry Olonga, quicker than Streak and capable of delivering “unplayables”, remains erratic and is short of confidence. Campbell needs to set “nursing” fields which means third slip and short leg are out of business.
David Mutendera has similar potential to South Africa’s Victor Mpitsang but is two yards too slow and a couple of years too young for a Test match new ball at the moment. Mpumelelo Mbangwa would be a class support act behind a couple of “shock” bowlers.
Left-arm seam and swing bowler Bryan Strang seems certain to play, and not just for the variety of angle. Steve Waugh, looking straight into reporters’ eyes after his 151 not out in Harare, said, “Bryan Strang was more difficult to face than Curtly Ambrose.” What?
“He runs his fingers across the seam, then swings a few, changes the pace with great skill … I didn’t know what he was doing with it. He’s a bit of a ‘trick’ bowler,” Waugh said. And Waugh never gives praise lightly. Strang might bamboozle, but he won’t bowl sides out, sadly.
Neither, sadly, will his injured brother Paul. A couple of years ago the leg-spinner was rated amongst the best three spinners in the world and lucrative county cricket contracts resulted. Now, after four straight years of playing, his arm and shoulders are, medically speaking, “buggered”.
“The tendons in the forearm go loose during some deliveries and I bowl full tosses at gulley’s head,” explained Strang. Which seems a fair reason for not risking him.
Worse still, former South African under- 24 leg-spinner Adam Huckle announced his retirement at the ripe old age of 28. Campbell and former skipper Andy Flower paid an emergency visit to Huckle’s farm three weeks ago and, though the bowler was prepared to reconsider, the tobacco crop demanded his attention. He will be back sometime in the future. In the meantime, Andy Whittall’s intelligent but biteless off-breaks will do.
So, after a 10-wicket Test thrashing and three 9-0 defeats in the one-dayers against Australia, Campbell leads his side into two Tests against South Africa in the worst batting form of his life and with a gentle bowling attack on South Africa’s second-best batting wicket.
“It’s mentally straining,” admits Campbell. “It’s hard to pick yourself up after you lose matches like we did against Australia. There’s no respite. It makes it even harder that there is no time to regroup. We came straight here to play South Africa – probably the second-best Test side in the world.
“Heath’s knee flared up again after the test. With the small pool of players that we’ve got it makes a huge difference when we lose players like him.”
And what about those sun-drenched, beer- swilling supporters that gave Campbell so much grief during Australia’s visit? The ones who say he should be dropped, and that Zimbabwe are …ing useless?
“It doesn’t help that I’m not making runs and a lot of the other seasoned batters are struggling.
“I think I’ve got the hardest job in the world because most people don’t expect us to win except ourselves and our supporters. It’s really hard to pick yourself up after losing.
“But we have to be more competitive. Show a bit more determination in the tough times and better shot selection. We’ve got to get tough. It’s going to be a really hard season but I think we’ll be better for it in the end.
“People don’t understand that it takes years to get a team gelled into a unit.”
If Campbell sounds desperate, it is because he is. Not a hopeless desperation, but a determined desperation born of fierce pride. Every Zimbabwean World Cup player will tell you that they went to England with one objective above all others, and they achieved it on that memorable day in Chelmsford.
There is no other team that Zimbabwe want to beat more than South Africa. Just the thought of it brings Campbell out of his depression, “You know, if you look back [at the Australia tour] we had some glimpses of playing very good cricket. In the Test match there were a couple of dropped catches then a bad collapse on the fourth day. Those were two crucial areas. Otherwise we could have competed.”
Laugh if you will, but I suggest not. Steve Waugh, dropped on 39, said, “If that catch had been taken the Test could have gone either way. I can’t say more than that. They play with great pride and spirit and they’re a good side.”
Personally, I believe South Africa will win on the fifth morning because Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener will be too good for a batting line-up that contains four useful, one good (Neil Johnson) and one excellent (Andy Flower) players.
22