Neil Manthorp
Planning was something that South Africa’s cricket teams weren’t able to do in the past because they had no experience of what they were planning for. It was like packing for a weekend trip to the moon – should you take sandwiches? Does it get cold in the evenings?
This time, with three tours to look back on, nothing was uncertain. A couple of weeks ago the Mail & Guardian paid tribute to team manager Goolam Rajah and the preparation work he did for the tour. On previous trips to the subcontinent Raja was merely the assistant manager.
In retrospect, South Africa’s players have endured some of the more hilarious managerial disasters in the history of touring. By the time the United Cricket Board (UCB) had sent each member of the executive on an overseas tour (as manager, no less, but primarily as a “perk”), the position had obtained all the continuity of brick being rolled down a hill.
Hansie Cronje’s on-field tactics reflected a depth of planning that does not come from a moment of inspiration while standing at mid-off. And it wasn’t just the rather obvious ploy of using left-handers to counter the threat of Anil Kumble and the left armer, Murali Karthik.
On the first day of the first Test in Mumbai, South Africa’s bowlers managed to keep the ball swinging (prodigiously at times) for hours. Amazing! No, planning. In humid conditions the ball will swing for a while, but to keep it swinging requires skillful maintenance. Nothing illegal, just knowledge of how to combine natural “roughage”, dryness and perspiration and saliva to allow the ball to best move in the conditions. The skill takes years of practice to obtain. Good international cricketers don’t just turn up to nets and bowl. They experiment, they learn and then, if they’re really good, they remember.
Good international cricketers also believe in themselves. They have no choice in one respect, of course, because if they don’t believe in themselves then they will be out of a job. But to carry on having the faith when all around you seem to doubt takes great courage. It is all too easy to ask, “Am I really as good as I think I am?”
Nicky Boje has been on the international fringes for five years. At first-class level, he has played for Free State for 10 years – debuting as a 17-year-old. That is an awfully long time to dream of playing Test cricket. And even longer when you remember how many times he’s been kicked back.
In 1996/97, Paul Adams was flown to India two days before the first Test when Boje had expected to play as the second spinner behind Pat Symcox.
He didn’t play any of the three Tests.
In New Zealand he also missed out three times on the deadest pitches in the world. He married his long-time girlfriend on his return from that tour and, though he had a more pleasant perspective on life, he could not, or would not, give up on the dream.
With Derek Crookes seemingly out of the running for a place in the Test squad for India, Boje hoped against hope that he would be picked (again) as the second spinner behind Adams. Then Adams broke his finger. As sorry as he was for Gogga (and he genuinely was), the stark reality of the situation was that Nico Boje, 1989 SA Schools number-four batsman and occasional slow left-armer, was going to play a Test match … surely?
When the squad was selected, Adams was chosen on the off-chance that his finger might heal. Boje was sitting on an aeroplane from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg when the squad was announced at the UCB headquarters at the Wanderers. Sitting next to him on the plane was selector Morris Garda. Garda was asked, by a journalist, about the squad. He named the players, one by one, starting with “the XI” and finishing with the names “Boeta Dippenaar and, umm, Clive Eksteen”.
Boje looked like he had been stabbed in the kidneys with a rusty sword. I swear I saw him change colour and struggle for breath.
Clive Rice, it transpired, had prevailed upon his fellow selectors to opt for Eksteen. He didn’t think Boje could do the job. Many over the years had said Boje didn’t turn it much.
Then Adams was withdrawn. Boje’s shattered dreams began to take shape again. He was awarded his Test cap in Mumbai – and he celebrated it by making 14 with the bat and bowling the grand total of five overs.
Then, backed by his captain, he was chosen as the sole spinner in Bangalore. He made 85 as nightwatchman and took 7/93, including the top three batsmen, in India’s second innings – man of the match.
Few, if any, performances have given me more pleasure. And few, if any, have been more deserved. Planning and hope. Never fail to plan, and never stop hoping.