Full Steyn ahead

“Is there another T20 World Cup? Next year? Wow. That’s shortlived. So, if we win it, we only win for a year?” – Dale Steyn hits the ground running.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

CRICKET’S oldest kid hit full speed on Tuesday, talking up a storm about this, that and the next thing. He was, he said several times between the barest pauses for breath, excited about everything from the present to the future, and much inbetween. He was so upbeat about his plans for what would come next for him that he was reluctant to discuss them. Maybe he feared he would explode with enthusiasm.

“There’s a lot of exciting things just over the horizon for me post-cricket but I love playing cricket. I wake up every day and I can’t see myself doing anything else right now. I’ve sat down with various people and spoken about options after cricket, which I am really excited about. But as long as that drive is to still play at the highest level, and get batters out and fox them and outsmart them, and all that kind of stuff, if I can do that, I am going to continue to do that and then once I can’t do that anymore — well once I decide that I don’t want to do it anymore — then I’ll be done.”

Dale Steyn, 36 going on 16, has been on this highway to happiness for 15 years. Looking at him and listening to him, you wouldn’t think he has lurched from one injury to the next for more than the last four of the same years. Before he broke his bowling shoulder at Kingsmead in December 2015, Steyn had featured in 81 of the 101 Tests South Africa had played since his debut. Of their 46 Tests after that first calamity, he was fit for only 12. Or parts thereof. He went from being involved more than 80% of the time to less than 27%. In August the finest Test fast bowler of the age acknowledged that even he was mortal and hung up his whites.

“I want to extend my career for as long as I can. If you’re playing Test cricket and you’re going to bowl 20 overs in a day, I could play five T20s and that’s the same thing. It was a smart decision. South Africa were going to India, where there were spin-friendly conditions, and I knew there were one or two up-and-coming quicks they were looking at. So it was probably the right time to say, ‘Okay cool, let’s walk away’.”

But only as far as the white-ball dressingroom. Even so, the 2019 World Cup turned out to be even less memorable for Steyn than it was for a team who lost five of their eight completed games and finished seventh: he went home without playing a match because of another shoulder issue. No matter. There are T20 World Cups to aim for this year and in 2021.

“Is there another T20 World Cup? Next year? Wow. That’s shortlived. So, if we win it, we only win for a year? It’s okay. Maybe this one. This one would be a nice one to go and then finish off with and reassess after the end of this year and then I will kind of figure out what I want to do.”

What might that be? “I don’t want to tell you right now. There’s some good things. A good friend of mine has started a business and he specialises in retired players, and we’ve had some great conversations about other players he has had in the football world and what they are doing and where they are going and some of the things that are lined up are exciting. And it doesn’t have anything to do with commentary or coaching, which is quite nice. That excites me.

“I’ve got an agent right now [former ODI off-spinner Dave Rundle], but he doesn’t quite know what to do once you retire. Who wants a player once you’re retired? Sponsors might not want to have you because you are not on TV. Managing that space is very important so we have sought advice from other people who do that. There’s a lot of things that are quite exciting.”

Last year’s edition of the Mzansi Super League fuelled Steyn’s upbeat default setting. Only Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi took more wickets, and he bowled a dozen fewer overs than Tahir and six fewer than Shamsi. Steyn’s strike rate — 12.8 — was the best among bowlers who sent down at least 30 overs in the tournament.   

“I decided to play a braver brand of cricket,” Steyn said. “I tried one or two different things that I wouldn’t necessarily do and I thought I would use that as a nice time to experiment, and it worked out quite nicely. Every game was a bonus. I didn’t think I would be playing. Now I am here and I think I want to continue in that kind of vein and just keep experimenting and keep trying to change to my game. If I’m going to play one more game, I’m going to try and take a wicket every ball. I’m not going to go, ‘Oh, okay, I’m just going to try and defend a boundary’. I’m going to give it a good crack.”

England, you have been warned. Steyn is in the squad for the T20 series that starts in East London on Wednesday. He last played international cricket in March last year, and has missed South Africa’s last 22 matches across the formats. So this rubber is big for him, but in more ways than the obvious.

“You want to win every game that you play but it’s all about learning, really. If we win a World Cup no-one is going to care whether we lost or won against England in February, but it doesn’t mean we don’t go out there to win. This is a very young group of players. My role when I come into the side now is, obviously, I want to do well and I want to perform. But I want to kind of orchestrate that bowling line-up. I want to be able to guide them. I want to stand at mid-off and really say, ‘Look, what are you thinking? What ball are you going to bowl? Hopefully they can learn and get better every game while I’m there. That’s what I want to do.

“Where the team wants to go is something we are going to have sit down and discuss. I just got here yesterday, so I’m not into those discussions yet. My job is to make sure guys are making the right decisions on the field. That’s what I want to achieve out of this.”

Then what? “After this, I think I am going to Pakistan for the PSL, then the IPL, and then there’s not much. I am not looking at anything after that, just the Proteas and giving it everything I’ve got, until the World Cup. And then we will just assess from there. Anything the Proteas are doing, I’m just putting my hand up and saying I’m available — pick me, don’t pick me. We’ll see how it goes to the World Cup.”

Don’t pick him? He’s Dale Steyn, and he’s going anything but quietly into that good night. 

First published by Cricbuzz.