December 17, 2006
What is in an anthem?
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 12/17/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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'It is my choice
whether I sing or do not sing the anthem'
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Jacques Kallis, very much the cornerstone of South Africa's Test side, is embroiled in a controversy over his refusal to sing the national anthem. A report in South Africa's Sunday Times suggests that Cricket South Africa will ask for an explanation from him after the Johannesburg Test.
The current anthem, first sung in 1996, is a combination of Nkosi Sikelel'iAfrika, which was a symbol of the resistance to Apartheid, and Die Stem (The Call of South Africa), which was adopted as the national anthem by the Apartheid regime in 1957. The issue regarding Kallis was first raised by a Sunday Times reader, Ebrahim Sadak, who wrote in to Cricket South Africa asking whether Kallis thought he was indispensible or "anti new
SA".
Ros Goldin, Cricket South Africa's marketing manager, wrote back to him saying: "While we do encourage all our players to sing the anthem, it is at their discretion whether they wish to do so. Jacques's choice not to sing is certainly not due to his being anti SA or because he thinks he is indispensable! It is simply his right within a democratic environment not to sing."
She went on to cite examples of other sportsman who didn't sing, including some South Africa footballers and rugby players, but Sadak wasn't appeased. Eventually, he got a reply from Kallis himself. "It is my choice whether I sing or do not sing the anthem," it said. "I certainly do not
have to explain my reasons to anyone, especially you. I do have good and valid personal reasons and I intend to keep it that way."
Continue reading "What is in an anthem?"
December 15, 2006
Mr South African Cricket
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 12/15/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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'Ali Bacher's love of the game still all too evident. The difference between him and the power-hungry businessmen threatening to take over the game couldn't be starker'
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On the eve of the Test, as the evening shadows lengthen, we head to the suburb of Sandton, and a quiet bungalow that's home to a man who was Mr South African cricket for more than a quarter century. Aron Bacher, Ali to nearly everyone, captained one of cricket’s greatest sides, and then earned further renown as one of the best administrators that the game has seen. He eased himself out of the limelight after successfully planning and conducting the 2003 World Cup, and his association to cricket these days is limited to appearances at the Wanderers and SuperSport Park in Centurion.
Bacher walks slowly to the door when we arrive. Two bandages still cover his lower leg, a legacy of a second bypass surgery that he underwent last week, having first gone under the knife way back in 1981. "I've had about six escapes," he tells us with a smile later. "But I feel as good as new now. I walk three times a day, and might even make it to the Wanderers to catch play on Saturday and Sunday."
Bacher is an eloquent speaker, and he has no reluctance to admit to mistakes of the past. The rebel tours, which he helped organise, were a huge mistake in his view, errors of judgement that happened because "we lived in a cocoon during the Apartheid years". "Had I known that Apartheid would end, I would never have tried to organise it. But we felt we needed to keep interest in the game alive."
Continue reading "Mr South African Cricket"
December 10, 2006
Net gains for Kumble
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 12/10/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
Almost 24 hours after they wrapped up the tour game, one of the Indians
was still bowling in the middle at Sedgars Park. Anil Kumble played no
part in the 96-run win over Rest of South Africa, and he bounded in for
half an hour, with Dinesh Karthik keeping wicket. After that, Karthik
batted for a few minutes as Kumble went through the repertoire in
preparation for the first Test.
Continue reading "Net gains for Kumble"
December 8, 2006
Maximum passion, minimum rewards
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 12/08/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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Cri-Zelda Brits - 'If people aren't aware that we're playing, they won't come and watch us'
© Cricinfo Ltd
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As the 22-year-old Morne Morkel summoned up a performance that was sure to catch the eye of the national selectors, an established international sat and watched from the space behind the sightscreen. Though Cri-Zelda Brits is only a year older than Morkel, she has already played 22 ODIs and three Tests for her country, opening both the batting and the bowling during the women's World Cup that was held in South Africa in March-April 2005.
Unfortunately, such is the nature of women's cricket that neither she nor her team-mates have played an international since a three-match one-day series against West Indies soon after their World Cup engagements were over.
Continue reading "Maximum passion, minimum rewards"
December 5, 2006
Slotting in effortlessly
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 12/05/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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'Though both Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar are on the mend, everyone gathered at the
outdoor nets was waiting for just one man'
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Seldom can one man have so dominated a training session. Sourav Ganguly arrived 90 minutes after everyone else, having driven straight from Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, barely pausing to drop off his bags at the Willows Hotel. And though both Rahul Dravid, the captain, and Sachin Tendulkar are on the mend, everyone gathered at the outdoor nets was waiting for just one man.
He made his entrance quietly, shook some hands, exchanged pleasantries, padded up, and then went across to do some stretches under Greg King's supervision. And just before he made the acquaintance of the bowling machine, Anil Kumble had a quiet word and a smile for him.
Ian Frazer led him in, and the first ball sent down from a height sneaked through bat and pad. Reassuringly for those watching, the next few all thudded into the meat of the bat. Ganguly, who averages 32.44 from his five Tests in South Africa, was getting into line and playing mostly from the back foot. At one point, as a ball sped off in the direction of cover, Frazer yelled, "I like it."
By then, Greg Chappell had asked Sreesanth and VRV Singh to be prepared. "Full-match intensity, boys," he said, and soon after Ganguly moved to the adjacent net for his first taste of real pace. The first ball was a bouncer that he ducked, and there was a "well bowled" for the bowler. Sreesanth and VRV were up next, along with a brawny local pace bowler
whose pace wasn't quite in sync with his immense physique.
Sreesanth, who professes to always having been a fan, tested Ganguly with a couple of deliveries that moved off the seam to fly off the bat airily in the direction of point, but a superb fast yorker that VRV bowled was expertly dug out. Then, as the local kept trying to bounce him, Chappell took him to one side and said: "You should follow it up with one that tempts him to drive instead of keeping on bouncing him."
Soon after, with Sreesanth discussing wrist positions with the local boy, Ganguly moved to the next net for the far less arduous task of facing some spin. For a man who had landed on South African soil just five hours earlier, the first glimpses were more than encouraging.
December 1, 2006
An electric atmosphere as thunderstorm plays truant
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 12/01/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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'The manner of Graeme Smith's dismissal - shuffling across to be struck in
line - had all the inevitability of a sunset in the west'
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At one in the afternoon, it was doubtful whether the Pro20 game would take place at all, with a leaden sky and distant rumblings of thunder. But by the time we arrived at the ground, an hour before the scheduled start, most of the dark clouds had vanished, and a carnival atmosphere was slowly being built up. Cheerleaders dressed in blue set the tone, and a Bollywood-style dance routine and the national anthems roused a less-than-capacity crowd to fever pitch as the teams walked out to commence the game.
There were ironical cheers when Graeme Smith middled the first ball from Zaheer Khan. His travails have been well documented, and though he managed 16 today, the manner of his dismissal - shuffling across to be struck in line - had all the inevitability of a sunset in the west. Zaheer was in sensational form, conceding just 15, and by the time he completed his spell, India were right on top. Justin Kemp and Albie Morkel briefly had the home fans up on their feet, but all the Indian bowlers contributed significantly in restricting the final total to 126.
Morkel's six off Harbhajan Singh soared high over the scoreboard and into some distant street, and Virender Sehwag, captaining the side a day after he lost the Test-match vice-captaincy, appeared determined to match his efforts with a violent slashed six over point. During the mid-match break, the mystery behind the Pro20 moniker had also been solved, with Kate
Johns, a Public Relations Manager for Standard Bank, explaining why it wasn't called Twenty20 as it is in other parts of the world.
"Three years ago, when we started playing the format, there was another bank called Twenty20 in existence. So, to name it that wasn't possible,"she said. "Since then, we've worked very hard to build up the Pro20 brand.There might be a few issues when the World Cup is hosted next year though, since the ICC call it Twenty20."
Continue reading "An electric atmosphere as thunderstorm plays truant"
November 29, 2006
A venerable venue and inspiring the next Tendulkar
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 11/29/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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'It was here that Ali Bacher's world-beating side had its last hurrah, completing a 4-0 rout of Bill Lawry's Australians'
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St. George's Park is South Africa's oldest venue, the first ground outside of England and Australia to host an international game. It was also where Ali Bacher's world-beating side had its last hurrah, completing a 4-0 rout of Bill Lawry's Australians before more than two decades of isolation imbued them with near mythical status.
For some of the Indian fans I met before the match started, this was a chance to buck a miserable historical trend. One fan had seen all of India's three one-day matches here, dating back to 1992-93, and been disappointed every time. The last defeat was the most humiliating, with luminaries like Joseph Angara and Thomas Odoyo sending them plummeting to
a 70-run defeat.
The ground has a fantastic atmosphere, with the stands and even the press box so close to the action. The beer sales were in full swing by early afternoon, with the sun beating down and the infamous wind keeping still. And the Indian flags were being waved loud and proud, despite the emphatic nature of the defeats at Durban and Cape Town.
Graeme Smith walked out for the national anthem giving one of the mascots a piggyback ride. It's a nice touch that the authorities back home would do well to adopt. Not only do the anthems gets the crowd primed for the occasion, but it also provides an invaluable experience for each small boy and girl asked to escort the players onto the field. There's a now-famous
photograph from a Liverpool-Everton match in 1996, with a pint-sized 10-year-old lining up as the Everton mascot.
Wayne Rooney went on to bigger and better things, and even if none of the kids who lined up this afternoon scale such sporting heights, occasions such as these help immeasurably in inculcating a love of the game. Australia do it with the Milo-sponsored hit-abouts during the breaks in games, and India could do worse than to follow the example shown by the southern hemisphere nations. Who knows, the next Sachin Tendulkar might be the one who escorts him onto the field during a game at the Wankhede.
November 26, 2006
Remembering Dolly
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 11/26/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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D'Oliveira: one of South Africa's finest
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Despite the fact that he was nearing his 37th birthday, Basil D'Oliveira was considered a certainty when England's selectors met on August 28 1968 to pick a team to tour South Africa. A day earlier, England had managed to draw the Ashes series, with D'Oliveira's first-innings 158 instrumental in a 226-run victory at The Oval. But with many in the corridors of power being fossils from the days of Empire, D'Oliveira's name was left off the list, a display of spinelessness that delighted South Africa's pernicious Apartheid regime.
Those with a conscience protested against the blatantly political decision and when Tom Cartwright pulled out through injury, Dolly - as he was known - was called up. But there would be no triumphant return to the Southern Cape for one of South Africa's greatest cricketing sons. Enraged by the MCC going back on its initial decision, John Vorster's government refused to let D'Oliveira play on its soil. The tour was scrapped and though they thumped Australia 4-0 in a home series a year later, South Africa were soon to feel the cold touch of international isolation.
Continue reading "Remembering Dolly"
November 24, 2006
Little India in Durban and discordant noises
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 11/24/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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Too much cricket makes Jack......Omar Henry echoes a sentiment that is gathering strength
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Omar Henry now coaches the university cricket team in Stellenbosch, but as recently as two years ago, he was convener of the selection panel that picked the side to tour India (2004-05). These days, Henry, who became the first Coloured cricketer to play for South Africa in 1992-93, focuses more on his family, and his 14-year-old son Riyad, who aspires to be a seam bowler, rather than a spinner like his old man.
"I loved the work I did with Cricket South Africa," says Henry, "but you spend so much time away from home that you wonder whether it's worth it." It's a feeling that the likes of Graham Thorpe and Marcus Trescothick have expressed in the past, but with the game's administrators interested only in shoehorning in more and more matches, who's listening?
Henry says he's excited by some of the young talent coming through in South Africa, though there continue to be whispers about the transformation process that will never please every section of society. This is a country moving away from its racist past, but the undertones can
still be felt at times. During the Durban game, when people were encouraged to send their SMS messages to be flashed on the giant screen, one person wrote: "Why are there so many traitors in this ground? You should go live in India then" - a view inspired no doubt by Norman Tebbitt, and the multitude of Indian flags that were being waved before the evening
collapse.
Continue reading "Little India in Durban and discordant noises"
November 22, 2006
A blade and a bludgeon
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 11/22/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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Barry Richard's wand pales in comparison to Mahendra Singh Dhoni's mace
© Sunandan Lele
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The drive from Johannesburg to Durban is a beautiful one, but once you enter Kwa Zulu Natal, you pass the scene of many a battle. There's Estcourt, where King Dingane's Zulu warriors massacred the Voortrekkers from the western cape, and Volkrust (The nation rests), where Boer soldiers gathered to regroup after the first war of independence. Perhaps it's a good thing that an embattled Indian team subjected to relentless criticism in recent months flew down, even if it meant skipping the chance to pass through towns like Pietermaritzburg, where Mahatma Gandhi was thrown off the train.
Kingsmead occupies a special place in South African cricket lore. It was here that Graeme Pollock scored the last of his seven Test centuries, an epic 274 (401 balls) that inspired a crushing innings-and-129-run thumping of Bill Lawry's Australians. Along the way, he added 103 with Barry Richards, who smashed 20 fours and a six en route to 140 in only his second Test.
In the media centre, there's a glass cabinet that houses bats used by both - the Gray Nicholls favoured by Richards and the Duncan Fearnley blade that Pollock used to such devastating effect before the isolation years. A senior Indian journalist doing a story on modern equipment for a TV channel managed to borrow one of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's bats, and we stare in amazement at how the new differs from the old. Pollock was reputed to use one of the heaviest bats of his time, but next to Dhoni's ship-hull-shaped one, it's an average Joe standing next to Jean Claud van Damme. The Richards bat may as well be Twiggy.
November 19, 2006
Stargazing in the rain
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 11/19/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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'When he was around the very idea of anyone else opening the batting is almost sacrilegious'
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As the drizzle continued and an expectant crowd gradually emptied out, the stadium’s sound system keeps up a steady stream of modern rock hits to keep the feet tapping, even as the skies above the beautiful green outfield become ever darker. There was not much to do at the Wanderers but sample the grub and wander the corridors, bumping into a childhood hero or two. With so many cricket luminaries on commentary, the easiest thing to do to pass the time was to think up a dream team based on those present, either with SABC, SuperSport or ESPN-Star.
The first name on the teamsheet was invariably the easiest. For most Indians of my generation, and especially those fortunate enough to watch that matchless 96 in his farewell Test, the very idea of anyone else opening the batting is almost sacrilegious. Alongside Sunil Gavaskar would be a man who many reckoned was in the same league, someone who scored 508 runs in four Tests before South Africa’s dubious politics ended his international career. Barry Richards’s attacking ways would also be the perfect foil for Gavaskar’s more studied approach.
Two more South Africans follow. The first played for Australia before heading back to his native land in the mid-1980s. Kepler Wessels made a century on debut against England, and was as pugnacious as they come. Just below him in the batting order is an individual who most think of as Shane Warne’s bunny. But against teams that didn’t wear the baggy green cap, Daryll Cullinan was a formidable batsman, a fluent strokemaker who managed the transition from child prodigy to international star far better than most.
Continue reading "Stargazing in the rain"
November 18, 2006
Last-minute preparations before the big battle
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 11/18/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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Sachin Tendulkar tries his hand at seam bowling ahead of India's first ODI against South Africa at Johannesburg
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With rain dampening the spirits and chilling the bones, South Africa's cricketers have to traverse the 35km to SuperSport Pak in Centurion to get some outdoor practice in. As we follow the same trail, we see vast empty plains that are a far cry from the organised streets and bustle of Sandton where the Indian team is staying.
As you approach the ground, you begin to see glimpses of South Africa's unsavoury past. Centurion itself was formerly Verwoerdburg, named after Hendrik Verwoerd, prime architect of Apartheid and a man whose tenure saw the Sharpeville massacre and Nelson Mandela's trial for treason. The road to the stadium is also redolent of the past - John Vorster Drive being a tribute to the prime minister whose intransigence over Basil D'Oliveira's inclusion in England's tour party (1970) led to the Springboks feeling the cold touch of isolation for two decades.
Continue reading "Last-minute preparations before the big battle"
There is something about the Wanderers
Posted by Dileep_Premachandran on 11/18/2006 in India in South Africa 2006-07
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The breathtaking Wanderers
© Keith Lane
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It can’t fail to impress you. You might have seen the beauty of the Adelaide Oval, the colourful chaos of Eden Gardens and the awe-inspiring amphitheatre that is the MCG on Boxing Day. But there’s something about the Wanderers, even with the stands empty and the field abandoned, that makes you aware of the history of the place. For the Johnny Come Latelys, it’s where South Africa chased down 434 to win a one-day match against Australia last March, but for those who like to go back a little further, it’s a venue graced by the likes of Dudley Nourse, Hugh Tayfield, Neil Adcock, Graeme Pollock and the legendary Transvaal sides of the 1970s and ’80s, many of whom never got to play an international game.
Continue reading "There is something about the Wanderers"
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