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Intensity the hallmark of Cronje's captaincy

By Peter Roebuck

10 May 1998


HANSIE Cronje arrives tomorrow and brings with him a withering pace attack, a long batting order and a team committed to fighting to the last fingernail. Since reappearing, the South Africans have played with the intensity of the Afrikaner, as well they might since their captains have been from this tribe and were raised in its heartland. The passion has been tangible.

In some respects, this emotion has been a strength, driving the players on at practice and training, as they sprint and sprint with Cronje to the fore. Their cricket has been rugged and resilient, full of rocks and crevices and every inch disputed.

Opponents can see 11 players boring in at them with terrible concentration. They mean to win. Opponents know they will be given nothing. The South Africans are a team of recoveries and wagging tails.

Accordingly, South Africa have succeeded beyond expectation since their return. By no means can they match the team of the 1960s whose collective brilliance was lost to the world. Among them only Allan Donald is a true champion. They are a team whose whole is greater than their parts. They have conquered a great deal yet they have not conquered the world, because they have been unable to win the big matches on the big occasions.

And the reason is simple. Although a source of strength, South Africa's intensity is also a limitation. Defiance and courage in competition have been the trademarks of the teams led by Kepler Wessels and Cronje. But they have been inflexible too, unable to sniff the wind and change tack. Both captains have relied on pace - spin is for cissies.

Partly it is a question of resources. Pat Symcox has had to be recalled from retirement. He is a thumping batsman, a gully capable of holding stingers, and a cussed competitor. But his off-spinners can be innocuous. Paul Adams, the other spinner in the party, is a whirligig of a bowler whose disappearance has long been predicted, despite which he has continued to take important wickets. Still, it is hard to see him bowling effectively this summer.

South Africa's dependence on pace is also a product of a caution revealed most clearly in Adelaide last February. Needing to win the match to square the series, they omitted Adams and packed the side with batting. To their undisguised dismay, they could not bowl out their hosts on the last day. But the South Africans were unimaginative; no sooner had Ricky Ponting played a hook than a man was sent to the square-leg boundary, discouraging the risky stroke though the Australians were hundreds short of an improbable target.

Cronje's captaincy captures the strengths and weaknesses of his team. He stands at mid-off, looking not unlike Alexander the Great. He is man of ice amid the turmoils of conflict. Not even the worst misfield, a dropped catch or a poor decision provokes so much as a raised eyebrow. He is the Afrikaner leader, stoical, stern, remote, unchanging. A man of faith rather than ideas.

And yet there is another side to Cronje, a side some might call unscrupulous and others mischievous. He has become embroiled with a spectator on the sub-continent and has trodden on a ball during a one-day match in Sydney, after peering around to see if anyone was looking, like a schoolboy contemplating a smoke. He has argued with an umpire on the field long after an appeal had been rejected and he bashed in the umpire's door after the self-same match in Adelaide. Even his watch has been suspected of devious conduct. He has been acquitted every time. Cronje resembles a chilli, cool on the outside, hot once the skin has been removed.

South Africa will rely upon Donald and Shaun Pollock to take wickets. Donald's greatness as a bowler has long been acknowledged and his athleticism and pace remain a formidable combination. Pollock is more straightforward but, as might be expected from a redhead, always hostile.

The strength of South Africa's batting lies in its depth. Gary Kirsten chops and clips and does not like getting out. Jacques Kallis is a thoroughbred prone to moments of carelessness, while Cullinan, the best batsman in the side, is an enigma, a clean stroke-player with a complicated mind, a bristling opponent full of self-doubt.

Cronje can hit the spinners over midwicket and runs superbly, while Mark Boucher is a fighter with bat and gloves. And they have a tail full of centurions.

Taken individually these tourists are not outstanding. But Cronje's team is full of character and characters. Although their batting has too many chips and not enough potatoes, they will be hard to beat.


Source: The Electronic Telegraph
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Date-stamped : 10 May1998 - 14:23