Neal Collins
The oldest cricket fixture on the Lord’s calendar got under way on Thursday with a definite South African flavour. A glance through the list of Harrow players to play Eton in the 163rd clash between England’s two major private schools reveals two interesting names: NRD Compton and K Motaung.
Sound familiar? They should do. Nicholas Compton went to Durban High School before his father Richard, once a reporter on the Daily News, packed him off to England to improve his on- and off-field education. Oh, have we mentioned his grandfather Dennis?
As a batsman with England and Middlesex, Dennis Compton was the Lance Klusener of his day and remains one of the legends of the game. Nicholas Compton is now on the books of Middlesex and has been drafted into the England Under-17 squad.
So how about this lad K Motaung? Does anyone there know his first name, I asked the headmaster’s secretary. “Ah, here it is,” she said. “Kaizer, that’s K-A-I …”
“That’s okay,” said I, “Kaizer Motaung is a quite well-known name in some parts of the world!”
Indeed, England woke up on Thursday to find two Kaizer Motaungs on its shores. Kaizer Snr, the owner of Kaizer Chiefs Football Club, flew in to watch his son open the batting for Harrow. Kaizer Jnr (18) has been helped a lot by English Premiership referee David Elleray, a housemaster at the school, considered one of the world’s finest for sport and academics. Elleray met Motaung through football and the relationship blossomed from there. The young Motaung learned his cricket at St John’s in Johannesburg.
Harrow School appeared understandably reluctant to talk in much detail about their boys, but I’m told: “Kaizer has all his dad’s skill and determination. He’s a very single-minded boy – and a damn good cricketer.”
Motaung might become a Protea: “Kaizer’s got every chance of making it to the top,” said my source. “He could probably play several different sports but if he sticks to cricket, I can see a Test future ahead of him.”
Harrow went into the game – played as a limited-overs one-day fixture for the first time in 163 years – as hot favourites. Eton, of course, is home to both Prince William and Prince Harry – the heirs to the English throne – and well used to keeping a stiff upper lip in defeat.