Neil Manthorp Cricket
Hansie Cronje bared his teeth like few captains know how after the first Test against the West Indies last season. Lest people forget, and they do, the Wanderers Test was closely fought. South Africa claimed a first-innings lead of just seven runs and were guided to a rousing four-wicket victory by Jacques Kallis and his unbeaten 57.
Cronje enjoyed the moment and proudly watched his team’s celebrations. But when they reconvened for the second Test in Port Elizabeth, Cronje didn’t like something. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly what, but maybe the smiles were a bit too broad and the laughter a bit too loud. The first, tiny signs of complacency?
He reacted as an army commander might react to an outbreak of scurvy amongst the troops. Ruthlessly. “I can’t remember what I said but it was along the lines of trying to stay ahead, that now was the time to get better not just consolidate,” Cronje says now, well aware that the same “disease” may reappear in even stronger form thanks to the one-sidedness of this year’s Wanderers Test.
“We need to look at our weaknesses as well as concentrate on our strengths. We need to identify where they (England) might be able to strike back at us, and then work on those areas. But the emphasis must be on us, our team, not theirs,” Cronje says.
“Ever since our batting camp in Bloemfontein last September we’ve had a different attitude and approach to the game. You can compare it to Ernie Els playing the Million Dollar. There’s nothing he can do about whether Tiger Woods is playing or not playing, he just has to play the course.
“Look at the way Ernie kept going, kept pushing himself. He started the final day with a six shot lead but if he had shot level par he would have lost. Instead he won with a record score. That’s the way I want us to be. To keep pushing.”
One immediate weakness is obvious, and Cronje says so immediately: “Our fourth seamer has been exposed. Hansie Cronje to fill Jacques Kallis’ boots? It’s just not on. It is a problem, and a weakness, with Jacques unable to bowl.”
Sadly, Kallis confirmed as early as Tuesday that he would still be “half-a-man” in Port Elizabeth: “The swelling has gone down but I won’t start bowling again until the Durban Test.”
Many people have asked how it is possible for Kallis to bat for six or seven hours, running twisting and turning, but not bowl a single over of his rapid, match-winning away swingers. It is a fair question,Kallis admits.
“Well, that’s why it’s taking so long to heal. The running between the wickets does take its toll. Ideally (physiotherapist) Craig Smith says I should take four weeks off and not play at all, but that’s not a very attractive option,” he says.
Kallis has one of the highest pain thresholds Smith has seen, though, and would need to be dissuaded from playing even if he needed surgery -which is precisely what happened with his appendectomy in Pakistan two years ago.
“You try to play through everything,” Kallis says simply. “You don’t want to let anyone down.”
The person most likely to be let down by Kallis is his very close friend, Lance Klusener. “Zulu” has struggled to take wickets recently and although his omission for this Test would mean a “chasing your tail” scenario of replacing a third seamer with another third seamer, Cronje might be happier playing the fourth seamer behind an in-form, wicket-taking third bowler. (Klusener will regain his bowling form, there is no doubt. It’s just a lean time at the moment.)
So Mornantau Hayward or David Terbrugge? Well, Hayward is an out-and-out strike bowler in the Allan Donald category, so if he plays it would leave Shaun Pollock to do the “containing” job among the front three. Ever seen a Rolls Royce towing a caravan? It really should be Terbrugge, if either plays.
But seeing as Kallis believes he will be bowling again for the third Test, whoever sits out will be consoled with the promise that it is a “temporary” measure. (Promises like that are often broken in cricket.) If it really is a temporary, one-off measure, then the team should play without its heart, Jonty Rhodes. You see the difficulty?
As a final thought, though, who contributed most to the first Test win and received the least credit? The answer, according to Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, is Herschelle Gibbs. His 85 spread confidence among his fellow batsmen, laid the platform for Daryll Cullinan’s 100 and dramatically disheartened both the England batsmen (making their effort look even worse than it was) and the bowlers (making them seem impotent).
“I was very, very pleased with my effort. I’d played one match in eight weeks and scored 14 runs, against North West. I went into the game without confidence; all I wanted to do was spend time at the crease and the pitch, funnily enough, was good for that. It was very difficult for batsmen who wanted to attack, but it was possible to ‘dig in’ because you could leave a lot of balls on length,” Gibbs said a couple of days ago.
How far he has come in the last 18 months, how incredibly far! There are some cricketers, like Kallis, of whom you would expect nothing less than selflessness, but there are others who must, and I mean “must” express themselves – and expect the odd casualty as well as triumph. Yet he forced his round character into the square whole the team provided and has done magnificently.
“I think I’m getting there,” he laughs loudly. “Yep, I think I’m learning how to be an opener!” The bad news for the rest of the side is that his ebullience, his showmanship and his tireless sense of humour are now released in greater doses than ever in the dressing room rather than on the field.
But should Gibbs or any other cricketer in Cronje’s side show the slightest sign of allowing England to haul themselves up off the canvas, they will be court-martialled. On the field is on the field, off it is not.