As a child, Graham Ford dreamed of playing cricket on the English county circuit.
He never realised that ambition but as director of cricket at Kent, he has helped a raft of other South Africans to do so.
Although he is adamant that it was never his intention, Ford has overseen the establishment of a virtual South African colony in Canterbury.
This season, five South Africans — Martin van Jaarsveld, Andrew Hall, Justin Kemp, Tyrone Henderson and Neil Dexter – have joined their country’s former national coach at the division one side.
”It certainly was never mine nor Kent’s aim to sign a whole bunch of South Africans,” explains Ford. ”We were looking for two outstanding all-rounders and Justin and Andrew were perfect choices.
”They’re here because of their cricketing abilities and not because they’re my countrymen.
”While they’re our overseas signings, Martin van Jaarsverld is here because he has married a local girl while Tyrone has been called up to cover Kemp, who’s been selected for a tour. And just to prove that we sign other nationalities, Dwayne Bravo from the West Indies is now covering for Andrew.
”Neil Dexter has done it the hard way. He’s on a British passport and has come through the Kent leagues.”
Dexter, of course, is not unique in having left the country of his birth to pursue a career in England. It is a growing and, according to Ford, worrying trend.
Ford (45) says that he is inundated by phone calls and e-mails from South African parents desperate to get their sons into one of the leagues.
”Every week, I receive hundreds of queries. I’m extremely concerned that so many quality players are deciding to play elsewhere.
”If we continue to lose so much talent its bound to threaten our depth and its going to be terribly difficult in the long run to maintain that same quality.”
The lack of depth is of particular concern to Ford as he prepares to coach the Natal Dolphins in the South African domestic competition.
It will be Ford’s first senior coaching position in that country since being sacked in 2001 after the crushing series loss to Australia.
Having won nine out of ten series, including a historic Test series win over India on the sub-continent, Ford was seen as carrying the can for the wider failings of the United Cricket Board of South Africa.
One of the players that Ford identified early in his career was Kevin Pietersen.
”South Africans have a big problem regarding KP. They don’t want to acknowledge that this guy is an exceptional talent. Of course it’s sad seeing Pietersen winning games single-handedly for England when he could be doing it for South Africa,” said Ford.
”A lot of people ask me how we could let someone like that go. I don’t have an answer. I tried to keep him in South Africa but it didn’t work out. The really worrying thing from a South African perspective is that we have no idea how many other potential match winners we are losing.”
Former national wicketkeeper Nick Pothas will qualify to play for England this season but Ford fears that, at 32, Pothas may be too old for consideration.
Not so Jonathan Trott. At 25, and having performed consistently for Warwickshire, the former Western Province, Boland and Otago batsman should, says Ford, win an England cap.
”The lure of the pound is very strong and you can’t always fight against that,” says Ford. ”But there are other reasons as well. Disillusionment is just one of them. And then there are a whole lot of guys who simply haven’t made it and are feeling sorry for themselves. Its a convenient excuse to blame the situation back home.”
Although Ford is looking forward to returning to Kingsmead and Durban, he has not ruled himself out of a third summer with Kent.
”At the moment I really don’t know. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here and might think about extending my contract. I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see how things pan out.” – AFP
