grows up
Paul Allott Cricket
When Mornantau “Nan-tie” Hayward, South Africa’s latest bowling discovery, first attracted the national selectors’ attention it was for one reason only. He was fast. In 1998 Hayward was picked for the tour of England, a speculative choice that showed immense potential.
That potential has taken two years to develop, a nurturing process that has produced a fearsome fast bowler. The “wayward Hayward” of Eastern Province has turned himself into the finished article through hard work and encouragement, and critically he has lost none of his pace in doing so.
Many young, raw, quick bowlers appear on the horizon only to disappear without trace as they attempt to transform their innate aggression into the controlled approach necessary to be successful at Test level.
Hayward has succeeded where others have failed in that he has improved his control over line and length without losing his most precious asset, his raw pace. He was regularly timed at 148kph in this Test and bowled the fastest ball of the match last Friday at 151kph. That is serious pace; faster than Allan Donald and up there with the quickest of all time.
There is no fluke in this. Hayward was pinpointed two years ago by Bob Woolmer, then South Africa’s coach, as the long-term replacement for Donald. No successful Test team in world cricket can hope to win continually without at least one out-and- out fast bowler. And Woolmer was wise in his choice. He let Hayward know that he was to be Donald’s replacement, but never suggested that he was going to be the next Donald; he was to be the first Nantie Hayward.
“I told him to go out and practise bowling quickly, but to practise by bowling at a target in order to improve his accuracy,” Woolmer said as he admired Hayward’s handiwork from the St George’s Park press box during the second Test. “South Africa’s cricket board, in their wisdom, sent him to Madras to the Dennis Lillee bowling clinic and kept an eye on him at the academy in Johannesburg.
“It was on the 1998 tour of England where we really got to work on Nantie. Both myself and Corrie van Zyl, the bowling coach, taught him how to bowl an away- swinger and solved his no-ball problem. He always had an athletic intelligence. He understood the mechanics of his body and of fast bowling and was good at putting into practice what we showed him in theory.”
Hayward’s other influences have included the former captain Kepler Wessels, who was in charge of Eastern Province, and the province’s current coach Adrian Birrell, who has added the finishing touches.
The results have been startling. Hayward has taken 46 wickets at an average of 16 for Eastern Province this season, figures good enough in themselves to promote him to the Test stage. Hayward possesses a good deal of character too. His hair is naturally orange – a similar colour to that of his fellow fast bowlers Shaun Pollock and David Terbrugge – but he appeared in this match as a platinum blond because his girlfriend prefers it.
Hayward’s progress from tearaway to Test match performer is a model for other countries, notably England, to follow. Picking him out as something special and then encouraging him along a set path has been accomplished inside two years, so that he now has the prospect of enjoying 12 months in the same side as Donald before assuming the great fast bowler’s mantle.
This is no romantic ideal but a well- planned scenario by Woolmer and the United Cricket Board of South Africa that England would do well to follow. England have a prospective gem of their own in Alex Tudor, who announced himself with pace in Perth last winter and with the bat at Edgbaston last summer. He has been injured this year but with careful planning, some sound advice and, dare I suggest it, a trip to see Dennis Lillee, Tudor may emerge as a similar prospect to Hayward.
Hayward will be looking forward to the next two Tests at Durban and Cape Town, which promise more grass, more bounce and more pace for the quicker bowlers. His aim is to bowl consistently at 150kph and, when conditions suit him, there is no reason why he should not be able to. That is hardly a Christmas present England’s batsmen will enjoy.