Date-stamped : 12 Jan98 - 07:44
10 January 1998

Spinner's Tales : No Kalahari sands as Northerns talent starts to bloom

Trevor Chesterfield

    Okay, so what was your favourite headline of 1997?
    Formula 1 racing shunted off the track by Schumacher? Tiger tames
Augusta? And what about Roaring Lions maul Boks or All Blacks too hot to
handle?
     No . . ? What about this one: Kalahari ton warn(e)s Oz big mouths? It
has a healthy touch about it, don't you think? Jacques Kallis, the hero of
Newlands conquers Melbourne and rescues South Africa, or the Safs for short
(Proteas is a touch wimpish for my tastes) from defeat.
    It was on a sweltering day in Colombo in August 1995 when Kallis first
impressed me as an exciting talent of the future. With temperatures
hovering mid-30s and humidity closer to the upper 70s, it was a sticky
afternoon. There we were, on the SA under/24 tour of Sri Lanka, and Kallis
was on his way to what should have been a century when he was "gunned down"
on 80.
    In the scorebook it says c SI Fernando b Munashinge, but in truth the
umpire, D H Pathirana (another from the Shakoor Rana school of "one rule
for them, one for us" excellence) gave him out caught when the ball had
ballooned off his pad out to point. That the bat was no where near the ball
escaped Mr Pathirana's attention.
    Even then, Bob Woolmer, the national coach who was an important part of
the touring team's management, felt that although Kallis was usually the
butt of gentle leg pulls and humour he was also ready then to play for
South Africa.
   Now, at 22, he has achieved what many have felt would, with patience, be
the first of numerous triumphs. And if it needed a back-saving operation to
rescue the side at the MCG, why not let Kalahari do the honours? Here is
the pioneer of the new school of South Africa batting carrying his
country's banner: a young man uninhibited by the trappings of the
pre-isolating coaching system.
   Just as spectators do not go to watch a test expecting to be entertained
with forgettable limited-overs style frolics with their lack of skills,
Kallis went out to enjoy the challenge and give those who paid to watch a
taste of what it is all about: a contest brimming with cordite and cannon
shot and more beside.
   So, while we dwell on Kalahari's reflected glory, what about a few
belated bouquets, too, for the schoolboy ranks in the Northerns system?
There have been no fanfares here. Centurion Park and the innovative bosses
who handle it do so with quiet, dignified  professionalism.
    The under/18s won the Nuffield Week (Coca-Cola) final in Grahamstown
and two highly talented players, Johan Myburgh (17) and Jacques Rudolph
(16), are in the South African side for the Under/19 World Cup. A third
player, Robert van Wyk, who played for SA Colts, also managed a game in the
series against England.
    Perhaps Myburgh and perhaps Rudolph will find themselves in the Kallis
category soon enough as both have set goals as professional players. The
first is an exciting opening batsman, the other a leg-spinner of whom we
should hear a lot more.
   Already Clive Rice, a member of the national selection panel and
director of the national academy suggests Rudloph will, in time, become
South Africa's Shane Warne. It's the sort of pressure a young man doesn't
want at this stage in his young life.
 
Source: Pretoria News
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