Experience will be vital against the Australians
Peter Robinson
Considering all that is at stake in the pivotal second Test match that starts at St George’s Park on Friday, it might seem a little Irish to ask readers to focus on Kingsmead. But do yourselves a favour on Saturday: try to get hold of a scorecard from Natal’s Standard Bank Cup match against the Strikers and have a look at the scores made by DJ Cullinan and JN Rhodes.
In normal circumstances, both Cullinan and Rhodes would have taken the field in Port Elizabeth for a Test that has to be won by India if the tourists are to stay in the three-match series. Instead, the South African pair will be playing against each other at provincial level. If the thought crosses your mind that something is a little amiss here, don’t be alarmed: it’s a conundrum that preoccupies virtually everyone concerned with South African cricket. More specifically, the question is can we beat Australia without these two?
With the exception of Gary Kirsten, who is batting as well as at any stage of his career, Daryll Cullinan and Jonty Rhodes are South Africa’s most experienced batsmen. Cullinan, though, has undergone knee surgery and is making his way back to match fitness. Rhodes, meanwhile, has made it abundantly clear that he sees his future as involving one-day cricket only.
So can South Africa get by without them? To borrow from Cullinan’s repertoire of calls for quick singles: Yes. No. Maybe.
For every person who thinks that Cullinan should be in the touring party for Australia, there is another who argues that South Africa would be better off leaving him behind. His record in Australia is dismal: four Tests; seven innings: 31 runs; an average of 4,42. Indeed, if you take his two tours of Australia away from his career record, his Test average scoots up from 44,2 to 47,4.
The evidence, then, suggests that South Africa’s most accomplished batsman would be a high-risk tourist. It is not so much his rivalry with Shane Warne that counts against Cullinan as his relationship with Australia itself.
Australia is not a country for the sensitive. Cricketers who wish to be remembered there have to cope with constant reminders of past failures, confident assertions of Australian supremacy and outright abuse. And that’s just in the hotel.
Pat Symcox reinvented himself as a Test cricketer in the four years between South Africa’s 1993/94 and 1997/98 tours of Australia. Where he was mocked first time around, he was abused on his second tour, but there was a subtle difference. The Australians accepted him as a competitor and when a group of spectators in Perth, filled to the gills with Swan Lager, sang “Symcox takes it up the bum. Doo Dah. Doo Dah” in 1998, it was, believe it or not, a compliment.
Has Cullinan, who desperately wants to be remembered as a player of the highest quality, got it in him to deal with Australia? To be honest, I don’t know.
But this might be precisely why Rhodes should be forced back into the Test side for Australia. He has had a far easier ride than Cullinan in the past and, quite apart from his method of dealing with Warne, he has earned the respect of both Australia and the Australian team.
Some of this happened in a split-second in 1992 when he dived headlong into the stumps to run out Inzamam-ul-Haq. Some of it was earned when he scuffed his way past Warne to score an unbeaten 76 in Sydney in 1994 and give South Africa the chance to pull off an extraordinary victory. All of it together, though, would ease the pressure on the South African team as a whole. And anything that helps deal with Australia cannot be ignored.
In a sense, it comes down to now allowing players always to choose what they think is best for themselves. India find themselves in this predicament in Port Elizabeth where, all week long, the choice of Shiv Das’s opening partner has been a matter of debate.
Rahul Dravid doesn’t want the job and neither does VVS Laxman. Connor Williams hasn’t had a bat in South Africa, and India, apparently, aren’t keen to expose Virender Sehwag at the top of the order. And so, it has been suggested, the job might fall to the captain, Sourav Ganguly. If this is to be the case, the eyes of the South African fast bowlers will light up.
Ganguly is vulnerable against the short ball. Despite his experience, he hasn’t yet learned to drop his hands and sway away in the manner, for example, of a Kirsten. If Ganguly opens, South Africa will tick him off as a quick wicket. Wherever he bats, he’s going to get it up the nose and, as far as South Africa are concerned, the sooner this happens, the better it will be for the home team.
Peter Robinson is the editor of CricInfo South Africa