Nicky Boje has moved from being the second-choice spinner to the star of the South African batting attack Peter Robinson In some respects it seems as if it’s all happened for Nicky Boje in the blink of an eye. One minute he wasn’t there, the next he’s everywhere, knocking off run-a-ball centuries, taking wickets, holding catches, executing run-outs. Is there nothing the man can’t do? Of course, Boje has spent years becoming an overnight sensation. He’s knocked around the fringes of the South African one-day squad since the short tour to Zimbabwe in late 1995 and had a run in the side in India in 1996 when Derek Crookes, the preferred second-choice spinner, fell ill. If the retirement of Pat Symcox before last year’s World Cup opened up a more permanent gap for Boje, his place in the side still wasn’t all that secure. In the crucial Super Six match against Australia at Leeds he was targeted by the Waugh twins as the weak link in the South African attack. Boje probably shouldn’t have played in that match. Headingley traditionally looks after swing and seam bowlers and South Africa had Alan Dawson in the squad who could have covered for the injured Jacques Kallis. But South Africa went for Boje, and with Mark Waugh waving encouragement from the players’ balcony Steve Waugh smashed the left-arm spinner out of the attack, 29 runs coming off just three overs. Boje went to India earlier this year as a late replacement for Paul Adams, who injured a finger in the Centurion Park Test match against England. Even so, he was still the second-choice spinner behind Clive Eksteen and it was something of a surprise when he and not Eksteen was picked for the second Test in Bangalore as the South Africans decided to beef up their seam attack.
Almost certainly, it was Boje’s batting that earned him his place, and with hindsight his selection seemed visionary. He made 85 going in as nightwatchman at three in the first innings and then took five in the Indian second innings as South Africa romped to an innings victory and a rare series success in India. To argue that first drop has been kind to Boje is to understate the argument. Three outings at number three against New Zealand have produced scores of 105 not out, 64 and 129, all his runs coming at around, if not better than, a run a ball. In the trade, Boje is regarded as a “package player”, handy at everything, but with the whole adding up to rather more than the sum of the parts. He’s got the number-three spot for the time being – South Africa would be daft to drop him down the order again while this run of form continues. But there will come a time when his luck deserts him and Kallis or Lance Klusener or Daryll Cullinan or Neil McKenzie or almost anyone you care to name is given a try. But for the time being, Boje’s the man. As New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming puts it, part of the tourists’ problem is that they’re not taking enough wickets at the top of the South African innings “and when we do get one, Nicky comes in”. No one should begrudge Boje his day in the sun. He’s spent several years wondering whether he was really good enough to play at the highest level, and when he finally got there, he found his name bandied around by Indian police. His name was dragged into the match-fixing scandal by Hansie Cronje, a friend since childhood and a role model, all of which made the accusations and inferences even more difficult to understand and bear. Still, he’s come away from it all with a toothy grin and it might not be stretching a point to argue that on the evidence of the first three games in the one-day series Boje has made a huge difference to the South Africans. Results might suggest otherwise, but the gap between the two teams is nowhere near as wide as some might believe. New Zealand are a good one-day outfit, but their bowlers have struggled to find the extra pace necessary on South African wickets. And Boje has yanked the game away from the tourists every time he’s gone to the crease. In all three matches South Africa have lost an early wicket only for Boje to go in and blaze. He’s had some luck. When he’s hit the ball in the air, it’s tended to go into the gaps, but more importantly he now believes he’s worthy of playing at this level. And batting at three is a bonus for him. If he gets out quickly, no one’s going to hold it against him, and if he has a bad run the worst that will happen in the short term is being dropped back down the order again. At the same time, though, Boje’s success has served to camouflage a certain amount of confusion in the South African side. More to the point, exactly what is going on with Cullinan and Boeta Dippenaar? Dippenaar opened for the first two matches then went down the order with Cullinan opening. But when the Tests against New Zealand come around, Dippenaar will presumably be asked to open again with Cullinan reverting to four.
This sort of chopping and changing does little to build confidence in the players concerned. And they might have good reason for not knowing quite what is expected of them. Selection convener Rushdi Magiet conceded this week that the squad for the first three one-dayers had been chosen without reference to coach Graham Ford who, apparently, could not be contacted by telephone in Nairobi. So Ford was left having to explain to McKenzie, who did not play in Kenya, why he had been dropped and trying to work out what was required from Cullinan, who had been left behind in South Africa. These are not the signs of a selection committee that knows exactly what it wants and how it wants to get there. And once the confidence of the players in the selectors, and vice versa, is undermined, it’s a helluva job to put it all back together again. Ask Nick Mallett.
Peter Robinson is the editor of CricInfo South Africa