What the Faf was that?

“I really don’t have any answers for you.” – Anrich Nortjé on South Africa’s bowling tactics.

TELFORD VICE at The Wanderers

FULL and straight, you idiot. Where’ve we heard that before? Where haven’t we heard it before, more like. We heard it again at the Wanderers on Saturday, and far stronger language than “idiot” was used as the full extent of South Africa’s folly was exposed to an increasingly disgruntled crowd on a beer-drenched afternoon in the sun.

When Jos Buttler hoiked Vernon Philander high into the covers and Dean Elgar kept his nerve and his eye on the ball to take a fine running catch over his shoulder, a bothersome stand of 40 was ended. Having reduced England to 309/8 South Africa had a decent chance of getting out of there alive, or at least for around the 319 that’s the average first innings total at this ground. Two proper doses of full and straight, and they should been batting.

Instead, the innings endured for another 81 deliveries — precious few among them anything like full and straight — that cost 91 runs. England went from being in danger of dismissal for a below average total to posting the 13th highest score in the 81 first innings at the Wanderers. The stand of 82 that Mark Wood shared with Stuart Board is the biggest yet seen in the 41 Tests played here. England’s Nos. 9, 10 and jack hammered 24 runs in fours and another 42 in sixes — or 72.53% of the aggregate for the last two partnerships.

They were able to do so, in part, because Woakes, Wood and Broad have between them scored two centuries and 17 half-centuries in Tests, in which they have a combined average of a touch more than 20. They are nobody’s idea of walking wickets.

But they are a long way from how good South Africa’s tactics made them look. The approach appeared to be to bowl short and wide. And to spread the field in hopes of a catch. What the Faf? That the buck stops with Faf du Plessis is undeniable, and as it should be, but closer to the truth is that the bowling plan for the match is devised by the bowlers themselves along with Charl Langeveldt. That said, it’s up to Du Plessis to realise when plan A isn’t working, and if he couldn’t do that on Saturday it’s fair to ask whether he has lost his bearings as a captain. In Du Plessis defence, only half the plan wasn’t working. Philander bowled 13 of those last 81 deliveries and conceded a solitary single, and Anrich Nortjé sent down 24 balls and begrudged three runs. But Dane Paterson went for 39 off 26 and Beuran Hendricks bled 34 off 18.

How aren’t the sorrier parts of that equation signals for Du Plessis to tell Dwaine Pretorius — who bowled at least nine fewer overs in the innings than anyone else — to warm up? Or to get Elgar to bowl some of the slow left-arm filth that has somehow claimed the wickets Steve Smith, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Alex Hales, Misbah-ul-Haq and Mayank Agarwal? Or even to unleash Temba Bavuma, who would have become the 21st man to take a wicket — that of Usman Khawaja at the WACA in November 2016 — with his first delivery in Test cricket had he not fetched from somewhere a delivery stride longer than he is tall and overstepped? Better yet, why wasn’t the field more attacking? Or at least less defensive — at a stage there was only two men, besides the bowler and the wicketkeeper, not on the boundary. Even better, why didn’t Du Plessis or Langeveldt or anyone demand a steady stream of full and straight? The lack of ideas and leadership was shocking, and damning evidence of how far this team have crashed in the 26 days since they won in Centurion. Yes, they actually won. 

Nortjé finished with 5/110 on Saturday, his first five-wicket haul in his sixth Test. With the illogicality of how these things are mismanaged, it fell to him to come and explain to the press where it all went wrong. After a few unconvincing attempts, he came up with the bitter truth: “I really don’t have any answers for you. It’s not nice sitting here and having our tails down. I would have loved for us to be in a dominant position when it happened.”

There wasn’t time or opportunity enough to find proper answers once South Africa’s slide towards a significant first innings deficit started. It was a story of submission for the most part, but the mood lifted incongruously after Du Plessis’ luck deserted him completely and he was sent packing by Rod Tucker despite Woakes hitting him on the flap of his front pad as he rose onto his toes to try to work a delivery to leg. Unsurprisingly, Du Plessis referred. Even less surprisingly, the gizmo said the ball would have kissed the apex of the bails just hard enough for the umpire’s call to stay in England’s favour.

With that South Africa slumped to 60/4. But you would never have guessed from the clamour that rose from a section of the spectators in the Unity Stand at the Corlett Drive End. That’s where the Gwijo Squad, the all-dancing, all-singing, almost all-black but enthusiastically all-inclusive group of South Africa supporters who sprang to prominence during the Springboks’ march to triumph at last year’s rugby World Cup, were stationed. Long before anyone could see Bavuma, the Squad heralded his imminent presence: “Temba! Temba! Temba!” He faced his first delivery of the series with five slips bristling behind his back, and a roar ripped in all directions as he deftly dabbed that ball through cover point for three. “In Temba We Trust” read a banner, and soon a song in isiZulu was rippling round the ground. “This is Temba. If you didn’t know him before, now you see him,” the refrain went. But the bubble of happiness burst less than eight overs later when Bavuma failed to get on top of a short delivery from Wood and Ben Stokes held a sharp, low catch at second slip.

At least, the bubble of happiness should have burst. But the Gwijo Squad were having none of it and kept singing and dancing throughout the remaining 25 balls of the day’s play, one of which claimed Nortjé’s wicket. The party continued as they left the stands and wound their way round the concourse, apparently uncaring that South Africa will resume 312 behind on Sunday and with Quinton de Kock their last hope of significantly closing the gap. When you’re all out of reality, unreality will have to do.

First published by Cricbuzz.

Anrich Nortjé’s hymn to hope

“I take it as a compliment in the sense of trying to go out there and fight.” – Anrich Nortjé on being called a Dutchman.

TELFORD VICE at St George’s Park

DOM Bess hadn’t yet completed the over that had been interrupted by rain for almost four hours when the St George’s Park band brightly lurched into a chorus from one of its hardiest, hoariest standards. “Zizojika Izinto” is a hymn written in isiXhosa, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages. Its melody climbs high as a steeple and then swoops off on a wing of hope, taking all who can hear with it. For long minutes and multiple renditions, and whether you speak the language or not, you are transported to a better place.

It’s about a lot more than music: a song to sustain the spirit during the country’s long struggle for freedom, and an anthem since adopted by more than one political party in the democratic era. It tells us about ourselves and who and what we aspire to be, not least because its title translates into “turn things around”. South Africans like to believe, with not as much justification as we think we have, that nobody does that better.    

And, the gods know, South Africa needed turning around in the third Test. They still do. Nelson Mandela took 27 years to get out of jail. Faf du Plessis’ team require another couple of days, but it won’t be easy. Anrich Nortjé knows that better than anyone.

He took guard at 5.45pm on Friday. At 4.52pm on Saturday, he sparred at a wide one from Ben Stokes and Joe Root snared a sharp, low, dipping catch at first slip. Much happened in the 23 hours and seven minutes between those two poles, but Nortjé wasn’t mulling the philosophical niceties as he countenanced his dismissal. He crumpled to a grounded knee at the crease, poked a gloved thumb through the grille of his helmet into his mouth, and stared for many seconds into the middle distance towards the dressingroom from which he had come, it seemed, a thousand years earlier. If only, he might have been thinking, he could exchange the years for balls faced. He shouldn’t be so hard on himself.

Nortjé was at the crease for more than three hours and faced 136 balls — and scored runs off only nine of them. His strike rate, 13.2, is the lowest in any first-class innings of 110 or more deliveries. “It’s not really about scoring runs for me,” Nortjé said after stumps on Saturday. “It’s about facing a few balls … as many as possible.” He dealt with the three deliveries Bess bowled before bad light and then rain ended Friday’s play. Job done? Not by a long chalk. On Saturday, Nortjé got into line with impressive willingness to blunt England’s fast bowlers, notably Mark Wood, who never strayed from the upper 140 kilometres-per-hour and touched 150. “I haven’t really had to deal with that,” he said of facing Wood’s high octane. “It gives confidence that I can do it. It’s nice to be able to do that. But it’s not the nicest thing to have to do, I’m not going to lie.” Nortjé is in Wood’s league of pace. Did being on the other end of the equation engender sympathy for the batters he bowls to? “No.” 

Nortjé saw the allegedly better equipped Dean Elgar, Du Plessis and Rassie van der Dussen come and go. And if he wasn’t so polite he would say he could also see that he looked the best of them. “There’s a bigger battle between [frontline batters] and the bowler compared to with me,” Nortjé said. “When I get a half-volley sometimes, I still block it. You can’t really compare. I’m not in the batting meeting, I can tell you that.” Nortjé faced exactly 100 deliveries fewer than the player who holds the record for the longest innings by a nightwatch for South Africa. But that guy came with a reputation as a batter: Mark Boucher, for it was he, can only have been proud of Nortjé as he watched from the dressingroom.

Uitenhage, too, will be proud of Nortjé. Some 40 kilometres from Port Elizabeth, it’s a tough town filled with tough people who build cars for a living. But they will have a soft spot for Nortjé, their homeboy, who definitely started their engines. On Friday, Charl Langeveldt, South Africa’s bowling consultant, described Nortjé in a television interview as “a proper Dutchman”. It’s a mild pejorative slung at first-language Afrikaans speakers, and its use in towns like Uitenhage will earn a beer bottle to the temple.

But this is different. “I’ve been called that for quite a long time; it was the first time it was on air,” Nortjé said. “I take it as a compliment in the sense of trying to go out there and fight, and come hard and be aggressive, with a lot of heart. It’s something I do try and pride myself on. When conditions get tough, when its 40 degrees, I try and be the guy to run in and come hard. I try and make things happen with the ball, not really with the bat. But if I get an opportunity, if I have to take a few blows, I’m willing to do that.”

Uitenhage has given South Africa other promontory people, among them the bloodless Balthazar Johannes Vorster, the apartheid state’s third-last leader and among its most brutal monsters. More happily, Enoch Sontonga also hails from Uitenhage, and he also composed an isiXhosa hymn that is special to South Africans. Outside of St George’s Park, you will hear it more often than “Zizojika Izinto”. It’s called “Nkosi Sikele’ iAfrika”, or “God Bless Africa”, and it’s the first half of the national anthem.

Should Nortjé’s effort inspire South Africa to turn things around in this match, they will be blessed indeed. 

First published by Cricbuzz.

South Africa’s bunless, meatless, bloodless bowling

“What we wanted to achieve we achieved today.” – Charl Langeveldt is a satisfied bowling consultant.

TELFORD VICE at St George’s Park

AT the Dukes fast food stand in the parking lot at St George’s Park, R60 buys “The Big Vern”. If it lives up to the chalkboard menu’s promise, it’s a monster: “flame grilled double beef patty, triple bacon, double cheese burger with sweet red onion, gerkins [sic] and lettuce on a toasted sesame seed bun”. In only the seventh over of the third Test, Quinton de Kock stood as close to the stumps as the first Dukes customer in the queue was to the counter. De Kock was keeping to Vernon Philander.

That the pitch would be slow was no surprise. Should someone profess knowledge of a fast surface at St George’s Park, they’re in politics. That the pitch would be as slow as has transpired wasn’t expected, but neither was two solid weeks of humidity layered onto an already sizzling summer. These things happen, and there was one of the most successful new-ball bowlers of his generation in his fourth over of the match, running in from the Park Drive End brandishing the still-new ball towards a wicketkeeper stationed snugly just 22 yards away.

Still, that was more explicable than the choice of who barrelled in from the Duckpond End once Philander had got through those first six deliveries for a single. Dane Paterson is a beefy medium pacer who has collected 21 wickets at an average of 21.80 and an economy rate of 2.82 in five first-class matches for the Cobras this season, and he has done a decent job in some of his four one-day internationals and eight T20s for South Africa. But using him to open the bowling on debut on a pitch as flat as the nearby beaches and in an attack that harboured Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortjé seemed to make little sense, even if England’s openers, Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley, had managed an hour or more at the crease together just once in their previous four partnerships in the series and would need all their discipline to stay attuned to the conditions. Charl Langeveldt, South Africa’s bowling consultant, saw the matter differently: “We stuck to our gameplan; trying to keep them under two-and-a-half for long periods. We tried to bowl straighter lines. What we wanted to achieve we achieved today.” So it wasn’t pretty, Langeveldt appeared to want to say. So what? 

Philander reeled off a first spell of four overs for five runs. He bowled only seven more overs in the day. Surely that was too light a workload for a strike specialist of his calibre? “The surface doesn’t suit ‘Vern’ that much,” Langeveldt said. “It’s quite slow, and batsmen can adjust [to how the ball moves] off the wicket. ‘Vern’ is great with the new ball but, as we’ve found out in these conditions, we’ll use him sparingly.” In that case, shouldn’t Philander have been spared the bother entirely? “He’s doing a job for us. It’s a holding job. If he takes wickets with the new ball it’s effective. If there’s any reverse swing he can be effective as well. I wasn’t thinking of not playing him.”

As for Paterson: “On this surface we needed to make the new ball count. ‘KG’s [Rabada] a wonderful bowler with the new ball, but Paterson does bowl a fuller length — he makes the batsman play more.” There’s logic in Langeveldt’s argument, but could he appreciate that others might see South Africa’s approach as resignation to the view that the pitch mitigated against attacking bowling? “Everyone has an opinion. You always look to strike. We looked to strike with the new ball. We just thought with a bit of moisture in the air this morning we needed to bowl a fuller length. In the second innings ‘KG’ will take the new ball again.”

Not that Rabada didn’t have his moments, putting the first chink in England’s armour four overs after lunch when he had Sibley caught at leg gully to end the opening stand at 70. Then, in the seventh over after tea, he nailed the top of a leaving Joe Root’s off-stump with a delivery that stayed low. That triggered a raw and raucous celebration by Rabada that was reminiscent of how he sent Steve Smith on his way at this ground in March 2018 — when the two players collided and Rabada had to fight off a ban on appeal. This time, although shoulders came close to connecting, there was no physical contact. Fast bowlers like Rabada, Langeveldt explained, walked a tightrope: “KG’s that type of person, he’s always looking for a scrap to get him motivated. It gets him fired up. I always say to him him, ‘Just control your aggression’. You need fast bowlers to be aggressive. It’s hard work on this wicket and the plan worked. We spoke about it: a fuller length to Joe Root to try and get him lbw or bowled, and it worked. Fair play to him; he celebrated.”

Rabada’s reaction might also have owed something to the challenge of trying to bowl fast on a pitch that is all about about the ooze, rather than the flow, of runs and wickets. It’s a surface that doesn’t give a damn about what anyone wants or even needs. You get what you get, now get on with it.

De Kock’s burger bar boogaloo up to the stumps was the first suggestion that Faf du Plessis was re-assessing his tactics. Confirmation was surely Keshav Maharaj wheeling away as early as the sixth over before lunch. And on and on he bowled until his wheels must have felt like falling off — all the way through the second session and until the 10th over before the close, when the new ball was due and immediately taken, this time by Nortjé and Philander. Maharaj’s spell of 30 overs, the equivalent of bowling an entire session from both ends, cost less than two runs an over: still another indication that, on this pitch, patience will be an even more valuable virtue than usual. Maharaj was back for two more overs to end the day’s play. And for all that his sole reward was the wicket of Joe Denly, who might still have been batting had De Kock not yelled a lone appeal after spotting that the ball had struck the pad flap before Denly middled it. In his next over Maharaj might also have removed the ICC’s newly minted “player of the year” for the third time in five innings in the rubber, but Ben Stokes escaped by the skin of an umpire’s call because the delivery had hit him outside the line. “He created a lot of chances, he kept the runrate down, and he looked the most threatening of all the bowlers on that wicket,” Langeveldt said of Maharaj’s endeavour.

He bowled a smidgen less than three times the number of overs Philander sent down on Thursday, and is surely set for many more as the match unfolds. Perhaps ‘Big Vern’ should do the decent thing and buy the man a burger.

First published by Cricbuzz.

How South Africa stepped back into their big shoes

“I’m sure his coaches were happy not to have to deal with 11 Mark Bouchers.” – right back at ya, coach, jokes Quinton de Kock.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THE soles of the trainers Rassie van der Dussen wore at Newlands on Wednesday were studded with purple and turquoise rubber pebbles that made it seem as if he was walking on two flavours of bubblegum. Keshav Maharaj favoured a similar colour scheme, even on his uppers. But minus the pebbles; he is a smoother operator. Orange flames and blue smudges on a white background was Vernon Philander’s footwear preference. Quinton de Kock is unarguably the most outrageously talented in this company, but he wore the most understated shoes among them: blue-grey marl knit with off-white soles.

Mere weeks ago South African cricket was divided along as many lines as a stretch of crazy paving. The biggest cracks are still there — hello? Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) board? When are you going to resign? — and none of the major faultlines were in the team. Even so, to have all those contrastingly clad feet happily pointed in the same direction in the afterglow of victory in the first men’s Test against England at Centurion on Sunday seems miraculous.

It’s just one win, and the team is far from the only aspect of the game in this country that desperately needs fixing. But that success, and the manner of its achieving, hints at what awaits if more of the remaining problems are resolved.

In the wake of a failed World Cup and five consecutive Test defeats, the only way was up. But that doesn’t take away from the shining truth that the appointments of Jacques Faul as CSA’s acting chief executive, Graeme Smith as acting director of cricket, Mark Boucher as coach, and — for the summer — Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt as batting and bowling consultants have had the desired effect. 

For Rassie van der Dussen, who was among South Africa’s more reliable batters at the World Cup and became the first man to score a half-century on debut in all three formats when he made 51 in the second innings at Centurion, the change for the better was striking.

“The work ethic was something that I’ve never seen before, and the intensity at training,” he said of preparations for the first Test. “It’s a new dawn for South African cricket. We were desperate to regain the public’s [good] opinion of us and of [CSA]. You have that responsibility to the fans — to put in a good performance and to win matches. Last year wasn’t the best for CSA and the Proteas, but the fight the guys showed — Anrich Nortjé’s innings showed what we’re about as a team — means we’re committed to giving our all.”

South Africa were 62/4 when Nortjé, playing his third Test, joined Van der Dussen as a nightwatch on the second evening. He survived 16 balls before stumps and another 21 the next day, in all batting for more than two hours for his career-best 40 and sharing a stand of 91 — South Africa’s biggest of the match and just one run shy of matching the partnership England openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley put on in the second innings as the biggest overall. What South Africans saw on the field, Van der Dussen said, was an expression of what was happening beyond the balcony.

“There’s a different atmosphere in the changeroom. Boucher and Kallis have brought the really hard mentality that you need in Test cricket. It’s a high pressure environment; it’s strenuous out there on the field. You need that hardness and toughness. That’s why Graeme Smith brought in a guy like Mark Boucher — to be a fighter and feisty character. We have those characteristics, but Boucher really brought it out in us.”

Maharaj was adamant that, even through the bad times, “the passion has always been there”. But his own giddily raucous reaction to bowling Ben Stokes off the bottom edge on Sunday said plenty, especially as he isn’t the most demonstrative player on the field. “We’ve come off a difficult Test season, so to get the win meant a lot to the guys,” Maharaj said. “From where we were, in a disruptive period, to where we are now, we were always going to celebrate each others’ successes and the victory that came with that.”

Philander made his Test debut at Newlands in November 2011 in a team that included Smith, Kallis and Boucher. So he knew who he was dealing with: “When you have guys who have played at the highest level it makes it easier. You can really feed off them. Having the credibility of the guys in the changeroom now, who have been there and understand what it takes to get back up again, has made a big difference.”

Langeveldt’s influence was apparent at Centurion, where South Africa’s pace attack relied on more than the muscle and aggression that has been their plan A. Suddenly, they had skills and a willingness to bowl a fuller length.

“‘Langes’ has also been around,” Philander said. “Between him and myself and a couple of the bowlers, we try and get to the answer quicker, [rather] than feeling our way into a spell and then starting to realise [what to do] halfway through.”  

For De Kock, the proof of the pudding was in the reinvention: “The guys are very focused at the moment. I’m not saying they weren’t focused before, but the confidence was down. Now, with this win, the confidence is very high. We’ve got a great team environment, and we’re bringing that onto the field.”

There was even room for a joke in this brave new dressingroom. The first half of it was told at Centurion by Boucher, who said he was happy he didn’t have to get 11 De Kocks to straighten up and fly right. To De Kock fell the pleasure of delivering the punchline: “I’m sure his coaches were happy not to have to deal with 11 Mark Bouchers. I guess sometimes I can be a handful, but we get on well. He’s probably just giving me some lip anyway. I don’t know what I’ve done wrong. Yet.”

Having won by 107 runs with four sessions to spare at Centurion, South Africa will hope to take their rekindled self-belief, and more, onto the field with them when the second Test starts at Newlands on Friday. They could do worse than look at their firmly grounded feet, realise that the shoe fits, and wear it. 

First published by Cricbuzz.

South Africa can see clearly now the rain has gone

“There is a lot more confidence in the structures coming from the top. Now you can trust the system a little bit more.” – Faf du Plessis

TELFORD VICE in Centurion

AS significant as South Africa’s victory in the first men’s Test against England was at Centurion on Sunday, the gains off the field were bigger. Faf du Plessis led his team to victory by 107 runs with a day and a session to spare. England’s last eight wickets were taken for 100 runs, six of them for 46 with the second new ball. Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortjé shared 7/159.

The result snapped a streak of five South Africa losses that started in February, and means England have lost half of the dozen Tests they played in 2019 while winning only four. Even before this match they were condemned to a year without winning a Test series for the first time since 1999.

But while England fans can cling to a successful World Cup — despite neither winning nor losing the final against New Zealand — 2019 has been an annus horribilis for South Africa. Their 2-0 loss to Sri Lanka in February was their first to an Asian team in a home Test series, they were the first team to crash out of the World Cup, and they endured a 3-0 drubbing in India in a Test series in October.

“It’s been a tough season; it’s been a while since our last victory,” Du Plessis said. “We trained hard and there was a good feeling in the camp that we’d done some really good stuff. We knew we needed to put in some performances to get the engine running. The guys’ skill was remarkable; consistent all the time. We needed that to get our confidence back as a Test team.”

But it’s likely South Africa were able to focus on what needed to be done on the field largely because some of the fires that have been burning beyond the boundary have been extinguished. 

New appointments in important positions — Jacques Faul as Cricket South Africa’s acting chief executive and Graeme Smith as acting director of cricket, and Mark Boucher as head coach and Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt as batting and bowling consultants — have rebuilt trust.

“There is a lot more confidence in the structures coming from the top,” Du Plessis. “There were plans in place before but I feel there are better plans in place now. We have got the right people at the top. Leadership comes from the top and filters down. By starting the way we did that’s set the tone for the way we are playing. Now you can trust the system a little bit more.”

The black section of South Africa’s cricketminded public — which is bigger than its white counterpart — has responded more nervously to the changes, perhaps worried that racial transformation in the game is being undermined.

Maybe they will take heart from the fact that, despite two more white players than the maximum of five having been in the XI at Centurion, not least because of injuries to Temba Bavuma and Lungi Ngidi, blacks more than did their bit.

Zubayr Hamza was the only black player among the recognised batters, but blacks still scored almost a third of South Africa’s runs. Black bowlers took 13 of the 20 wickets.

More than four hours after the last wicket fell and the celebrations began, the most raucous version of South Africa’s team song this reporter has yet heard roared out of the dressingroom.

There is much still to be done for genuine unity to be achieved in South African cricket, but there was no doubting the togetherness heard in the shouted crescendo: “Proteas! Proteas! Proteas!”

First published by Cricbuzz.

Pitch evens contest, says De Kock

“When I started finding rhythm, it started happening.” – Quinton de Kock on his 95.

TELFORD VICE in Centurion

SOUTH Africa’s 277/9 wasn’t how they would have wanted to start their Test series against England in Centurion on Thursday. But, for Quinton de Kock, it also wasn’t the worst way to get the party started.

“If we get to 300, it’s 50-50,” he told a press conference after stumps. “Even at the moment it’s 50-50. The wicket will get a little bit more difficult to bat on as the game goes on. When I walked in, until when I got out [in the 72nd over], it was still swinging around and the ball is still nipping. And the one end has definitely got more bounce than the other.”

De Kock was alone among the several South Africans who carved out starts to cash in, hitting 14 fours in his 128-ball 95 before he was caught behind off Tom Curran, who took 4/57. “I was trying to show some intent, get my head in the game and compete out there,” De Kock said. “When I started finding rhythm, it started happening.”

The match is South Africa’s first under a new regime of Mark Boucher as head coach, Jacques Kallis as batting consultant, bowling consultant Charl Langeveldt, and Graeme Smith as acting director of cricket.

De Kock said the wind of change could be felt in the dressingroom: “I said to ‘Bouch’ that it feels like I am making my debut again. We want to change things. There’s been a lot of talk. Things have been done off the field and we feel re-energised. There is structure and the guys are very happy.”

With Vernon Philander showing grit for his 28 not out, De Kock and the rest of the South Africans will harbour more than just hope that 300 — or something like it — will be closer rather than farther when their next wicket falls. 

First published by Cricbuzz. 

Time to walk the revolution talk

Not for Siya Kolisi the premature congratulations being lavished on Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis. 

TELFORD VICE in Johannesburg

THE motorway exit to Centurion is still named after John Vorster, one of apartheid’s most brutal enforcers. The sun still hammers down on the scene with apparent hatred for all beneath it. The pitch, two days before the first ball is bowled in the men’s Test series between South Africa and England, is still the colour of the inside of a freshly halved avocado. But everything else has changed.

“There’s a real energy in the squad, a real positive feel to what we’ve been doing and how we’ve been training the last week and the information that’s been spoken about with Kallis and Boucher back in the team,” Faf du Plessis said on Tuesday. “Even with someone like myself, who’s played a lot of international cricket, the wisdom that’s in the dressingroom helps me as well.”

That’s batting consultant Jacques Kallis and head coach Mark Boucher he’s talking about, who along with Graeme Smith — the acting director of cricket — have pulled cricket in South Africa out of the terminal nosedive it was forced into by months of damagingly shambolic administration at board and operational level.

“The last six months it has felt as if there is more weight on my shoulders,” Du Plessis said. “I could see so many things happening off the field; not the right structures being put in place. That’s never an excuse for the type of cricket that we play. But it has been a breath of fresh air to have these guys back. Why have these guys not been here for the last 10 years? It’s so important to have people like that in an international dressingroom. When we played against the Australians [at the World Cup], you look at [Justin] Langer, [Ricky] Ponting, [Steve] Waugh … We want that.”

But how can we say conclusively that Smith, Boucher and Kallis have cleaned up the mess South Africa were in their Test series in India in October and at the World Cup when we have yet to see the product of their efforts? They’ve been aboard for so short a time — Smith’s appointment was announced on December 11, Boucher’s three days later, Kallis’ and bowling consultant Charl Langeveldt’s four days after that — and South Africa’s problems run so deep — batting, bowling, fielding, thinking, even the toss — that it is fatuous to think the issues have been solved at a stroke, or three, and even if the recent appointments bring with them 1,420 international caps worth of experience. Yet cricketminded South Africans do think they are the answer, and are saying so — perhaps because the hole the game has crashed into is so unprecedentedly deep that any way is up.

So it seems unfair that it falls to Du Plessis’ and his players to validate the narrative that everything is going to be OK now that South Africa’s relatively illustrious past has been called back. Except that, as the above attests, the team — or those members of it who have spoken to the press since the dressingroom revolution — have been cheerleaders-in-chief for the new deal. Du Plessis knows that push will come to shove as soon as 10am on Thursday: “Whatever we do before a Test series means nothing. We will get measured on the way we play. Now it’s about going out there and putting in performances on the field.”

It would be interesting to know whether Du Plessis’ true feelings about someone who was in a similarly bleak place 18 months ago, a man he calls his friend. A funny thing happened on the way to that friend being tossed onto the scrapheap of South Africa’s history: he led the Springboks to triumph at rugby’s World Cup. Does Du Plessis envy or admire Siya Kolisi, or perhaps harbour elements of both emotions? Maybe cricket should pause on its road to redemption and ask itself those questions, and should stop at Kolisi’s door and listen to his advice.

Du Plessis and Kolisi were having dinner together in Cape Town last month when a familiar figure spotted the latter and came over to their table. It turns out Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool football manager, is a Kolisi fan. Who isn’t? Kolisi rose from a background exponentially less privileged than Du Plessis’ to conquer his world. He emerged from a system that was broken and played an important role in fixing it, and did so to the disbelief of legions who thought he was part of the problem. Not for Kolisi the premature congratulations being lavished on Smith, Boucher and Kallis. 

In the course of relating the dinner story to the press on Tuesday, Du Plessis was asked whether Klopp had also recognised him. “No,” was his comfortably modest response. Taking a Test series off England, which no South men’s team have done at home since January 2000, won’t change that. But it could be the start of everything truly changing.

First published by Cricbuzz. 

And they’re back: Boucher, Kallis all grown up

“Dean Elgar won’t come out batting right-handed, or anything like that.” – Jacques Kallis assures South Africans that not everything about cricket has changed.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

MARK Boucher and Jacques Kallis. For all but 19 of the 156 men’s Tests South Africa played from October 1997 to March 2012, there was no separating them: behind the stumps, Boucher; at second slip, Kallis. They batted together 33 times and shared 1,157 runs, among them two century stands. They felt South Africa’s pain together at the 1999, 2003 and 2007 editions of the World Cup.

Where one went the other was sure to follow, on and off the field. Sometimes they seemed to be two halves of the same person. Boucher had enough brashness for the both of them. Kallis’ sheer stature seemed to add a foot to Boucher’s height. Boucher did almost all of the talking, Kallis almost all of the listening. At least, that’s how it looked from outside their bubble.

The partnership was broken, on the field, at Taunton on July 9, 2012, when a bail tumbled into Boucher’s left eye, ending his playing career. Off the field, the bond was seamless. They lived close to each other. They produced a brand of wine together. They were bestmen at each other’s weddings.

And, as of Wednesday, they are back in South Africa’s dressingroom. Boucher’s appointment as coach and Kallis’ acquisition, for the summer, as the batting consultant are the biggest pieces in the puzzle Graeme Smith is trying to solve since his own enlistment as acting director of cricket last Saturday. With those three giants has come some of the belief that has been seeping out of South Africa’s cause since Smith’s retirement in March 2014. Add Charl Langeveldt as the bowling consultant — he has had a previous and successful coaching stint with the team — and there are reasons to be cheerful that rise above even Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) shambolic administration.

Or are there? The jury in the court of public opinion would seem to be out. In captioning a photograph of Boucher, Kallis and Langeveldt on social media, Boeta Dippenaar connected the dots to the ills of South Africa’s wider society: “Are these gentlemen the answer to CSA’s problems? The short answer is no. Why? Because years of neglect got us to where we are today. A systematic breakdown of structures is the root cause. It’s politics, it’s about ‘me’ and not the game. CSA is a reflection of what we see happening at SOE’s [state owned enterprises] and most local municipalities. The appointment of the three gentlemen represents a small step in the right direction. That brought Vince van der Bijl into the conversation: “African proverb … How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. We have started the meal.” Soon Barry Richards was at it: “Cricket sense from a cricketer. Right direction of course. But the elephant is still in the room.”

The elephant is CSA and its gift for losing money and stumbling down dark alleys in governance terms. At board level, that is — the appointment of the respected Jacques Faul as acting chief executive, to replace Thabang Moroe, who has been suspended, elicited almost audible sighs of relief. Moroe’s removal was required to get Smith aboard, and here we are a week later with a newly minted coaching staff and rather more than we previously had of the precious metal Dippenaar referenced to end his post: “#hope”. But there are no honeymoons after shotgun marriages, and South Africa’s new regime will hit the ground running in a Test series against England that starts at Centurion on Thursday.

“Two weeks ago I thought I was going to be in St Francis [a resort on South Africa’s east coast] over Christmas, maybe take a little trip to Fancourt for some golf,” Boucher told reporters in Centurion on Friday, where South Africa’s camp was in full swing with him directing operations. “Things have changed …” Things like the people in top jobs: “I had faith that the guys who had been put in those leadership positions would be able to take care of certain things and I would be able to focus on this job and try to take this group of players forward.”

Something else that would seem to have changed is that Kallis isn’t letting Boucher do all of the talking anymore: “Jacques mentioned in the changeroom the other day about preparing for an exam. If you go into an exam and you don’t feel prepared, you are not going to have the confidence. That’s what we are trying to do — get the guys’ confidence back and make sure we have ticked every box possible, so that when they do get into the Test match they feel they are ready.”

While Boucher is calculating and canny, Kallis is as close to instinct on legs as it is possible to be for someone steeped in the complexities of cricket. He thinks, but he doesn’t let thought get in the way of action. “I’m just trying to get to know the individuals,” Kallis said. “‘Bouch’ and Enoch [Nkwe, the assistant coach] have worked with a lot of the guys so they know them pretty well. I’m trying to get a relationship with the players and see how they are thinking and trying to give them game plans. I’m not a big one for changing too many things. Dean Elgar won’t come out batting right-handed, or anything like that. I’m just trying to give the guys options and ideas and make them realise you can’t bat the same way every time you walk out to bat. You have to adapt your game. I’m trying to get them to know their game plan a lot better so they can try and adapt while they are batting. It’s not the spoonfeeding of coaching; it’s trying to educate them so they can educate themselves while they are out in the middle. It’s a lot of off-the-field stuff, the mind stuff, along with the technical stuff.”

Kallis has come a long way since his playing days, when you could look into his eyes and see not a flicker of life if he wasn’t interested in what was going on around him. Boucher, too, has become a proper human being compared to the time when his primary ambition was to, he used to say, “walk onto the field as if you own the place”. Losing half his sight may have helped make him see things more accurately, or at least in a light favourable for more positive, less competitive interaction with his world. “I’ve learnt a lot of lessons along the way,” Boucher said. “I learnt that my way is not always the right way. There were times in my career where I used to go out there and be quite aggressive and try and impose myself on teammates. This is what I have learnt on diversity within a set-up. Sometimes you won’t get the best out of the players if you are trying to get them to be like you. My biggest lesson is to let people be who they are and let them be natural. I played at my best when I was natural but my natural wasn’t the same as AB’s [De Villiers] natural or Jacques’ natural. That’s a big lesson I have learnt with regards to leading individuals. Whenever I make a decision, I ask myself, ‘Is it a good cricketing decision?’. And if I can answer yes, then I go with it and I tap into other knowledge in the dressingroom to back that up. And then we go full steam ahead with that. The last thing you want to do is second-guess yourself.”

Some things don’t change. Boucher is still a hard bastard. Kallis is still a colossus who owns any room he steps into. Other things do change: they’ve learnt how to be themselves better. For the rest of us, that’s called growing up. For people like Boucher and Kallis, who aren’t allowed the time and space to mature naturally, it’s called success. If they can get that into their charges’ heads, nothing will stop South Africa.

First published by Cricbuzz.

Brighter days dawn for South Africa

“You are trying to impress your batting coach because he’s Jacques Kallis, the best batsman that ever lived.” – Faf du Plessis’ inner kid comes out.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

STRUGGLING football teams who sack their managers often show significant improvement immediately, not least because they no longer have to see and hear the embodiment of their failures. Faf du Plessis no doubt hopes something similar happens on an exponential scale for South Africa in the first of four men’s Tests against England in Centurion on Thursday.

Not only have South Africa changed coaches since their lacklustre World Cup, where they crashed out in the first round, and their shambolic series in India in October, when they played ever more poorly and deservedly lost 3-0, they also have new batting and bowling consultants. A fresh Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive and director of cricket have taken office, albeit in acting capacities. Now, Mark Boucher heads a coaching staff featuring Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt, with Jacques Faul and Graeme Smith beyond the boundary. And all in the space of a week.

It adds up to a bright new day for a team who have been walking for too long in the valley of the shadow of CSA’s diabolical idea of how to run the game. Sponsors are still running away, staff are still suspended, money is still gushing out of the game, and there’s still the matter of a high court case pitting the players against the suits over a domestic restructure plan to sort out. But, suddenly, trust is all around.

“This is the most optimistic we have been in a while,” Du Plessis told reporters at South Africa’s training camp in Centurion on Friday. “There were a lot of challenges in the last six months. Yes, we haven’t played our best cricket but there has been a lot of stuff happening off the field. We are not as prepared as we would have liked to be but for now what’s more important is the things that have changed in the last two weeks.

“Cricketers and the public have got a lot of optimism about the team. We will obviously get judged on our performances and only time will tell, but it’s really important where we are as a team and also for cricket in South Africa — that we focus on getting the right people in the right places. I feel that has happened. I feel we have got a very good coaching and management staff right now, which is something I have spoken about before.”

Du Plessis spared a thought for Enoch Nkwe, South Africa’s interim team director in India, who has since been made Boucher’s assistant: “It was very tough on Enoch to go on that tour and almost be judged. Even if you are the best coach you will struggle to go to India and do well. What’s exciting is how it has unfolded. We are keeping Enoch and what he has done and what he brings to the team but we are also adding the experience.”

South Africa’s players are not unaccustomed to attempts at damaging interference by their administrators, so a barrier between the team and the rest of the game has built over the years. This has had positive and negative consequences, both at a group as well as an individual level. But the mental buffer, a firebreak of sorts, has served the team well while the game has been ablaze all around them.

“It’s really very strong, the culture in the team,” Du Plessis said. “If you look at all the stuff that’s been happening, you haven’t seen any player issues. We take our performances on the chin and [the culture has] remained strong throughout the mess we have had. Now, with all the stuff in place, I can trust the system, trust the leadership groups and just enjoy playing cricket. That’s also important. Maybe I did overburden myself with all the stuff that was happening but I felt it was required of me and now I have felt the difference. The conversations I had with Jacques Faul, Graeme Smith, Kallis, Boucher, even Enoch the last while have been very positive. It’s very motivating for me to see that we are definitely going in the right direction.”

Kallis and Boucher are South Africa’s most capped Test players with 165 and 146 appearances. The entire XI had 251 between them going to the third Test in Ranchi. “We are very inexperienced in some departments and the best way to tackle that head-on is to talk to guys who have been there and done it,” Du Plessis, who has played 61 Tests, said. “The last two days have been exceptional in terms of us talking in a batting group with Boucher and Kallis. They have been unbelievable conversations that haven’t happened for a while because we did not have experience in our team. The last two days have been hugely positive for me to see that, even though we are not getting the time in the middle, we are getting very specific practice — talking to batters about how you are batting, what you’re looking for, what is a bowler trying to do, how are you putting together your first 20 balls. Those things are absolute gold for young players to grow and even for myself. Their cricket brains are exceptional. You just feed off it the whole time.”

Kallis is one of cricket’s most taciturn figures. Boucher is among the most overtly self-confident players yet to take the field. And yet they have been friends for years. How had their contrasting chemistry affected the team? “[Kallis] has no ego; he is there just to help,” Du Plessis said. “He just tries to add value. What’s been really good for [Boucher, who came to the team after coaching the Titans since August 2016] is seeing what it is like on the other side, because coaching and playing are two different roles. You can see his development from a personality point of view. He understands both now. He also understands that it’s give and take. That only comes when you are mature enough to understand what a leadership group looks like and are secure in your own position. If you are insecure then you are going to feel like you need to talk all the time because there is another big voice in the team, but I don’t feel like that at all.”

Not that Du Plessis was immune to the effects of being in Kallis’ orbit: “You are trying to impress your batting coach because he’s Jacques Kallis. You are trying to impress him all the time because he is the best batsman that ever lived. That’s already a step in the right direction. Then, you start having conversations and you start preparing better because there is guidance. Through that you get confidence because you feel your game is in a better place.”

South Africa are undoubtedly in a better place than they have been in months, even years. But it will seem a lot like the same old place if they don’t put all that positivity into practice on the field. The only way, then, is up.

First published by Cricbuzz.

SA’s newlook support staff excites Rabada

“He would have had to make a decision whether he was going to walk away or stay, and he stayed. I’m really glad he did.” – Kagiso Rabada on Enoch Nkwe.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

KAGISO Rabada can come across as jaded, which is hardly surprising considering he is among the hardest working fast bowlers in world cricket. But he couldn’t contain his excitement on his first day in South Africa’s new-look dressingroom on Thursday.

“It’s amazing to have someone like Jacques Kallis in,” Rabada said in an audio interview released by Cricket South Africa (CSA). “He’s a great of the game. So is Mark Boucher. To hear their knowledge … it doesn’t even have to be skill-based, but mentally how you want to approach certain situations. So it’s great to have them around because they almost speed up your learning process.

“It’s also great to have Charl Langeveldt back. I really enjoy working with him. He’s in the same light as Mark and Jacques. They know what they’re talking about. They played at this level for a very long time.

“Everything is well-drilled and well-oiled. There’s no hesitation. They have a plan, they’re really decisive on what needs to happen. But at the same time it’s not very strict. There’s an expectation on every player to do the minimum of what is required, and the rest is up to you. You can liberate yourself.”

Tuesday was South Africa’s men’s team’s first day back at work after the Test series in India in October, when the visitors lost their shape, their game, their resolve, their basics and the series, 3-0. Enoch Nkwe was the interim team director with Lance Klusener the batting coach for the T20 series — he was not replaced for the Tests — and Vincent Barnes and Justin Ontong the bowling and fielding coaches. A few weeks on, only Ontong has kept his job. Boucher is now the head coach with Nkwe as his deputy. Kallis and Langeveldt head the batting and bowling departments. They will take South Africa into the four-match Test series against England, which starts in Centurion next Thursday.

Much of the blame for what happened in India has been laid at the door of Nkwe’s inexperience: he had neither played at the highest level nor been an international head coach before the India tour. But Rabada was relieved that Nkwe, who at 36 and with a level four coaching certificate in his kitbag has the potential to return to the top job, had not been lost to the team.

“Enoch is someone I’ve worked with since I was at age-group level, along with guys like ‘Quinny’ [Quinton de Kock] and Temba [Bavuma],” Rabada said. “The guys who’ve worked with him, they know his quality. He’s done really well at the Strikers and the Lions [domestic teams who won five titles across all formats under Nkwe’s guidance]. He’s no doubt a valuable person to have in the changeroom. He would have had to make a decision whether he was going to walk away or stay, and he stayed. I’m really glad that he did because I’ve got a relationship with him and so do the other players. Especially the young players who are in the T20 format; guys like Rassie [van der Dussen] and Dwaine [Pretorius]. They know him well and they know the value he can bring. I certainly know that, too. He’s made a decision to invest in the team and I’m really glad that he’s done so.”

South Africa’s series in India was their first in the World Test Championship (WTC), and the result means they are at the bottom of the standings. Thus they have the chance to redeem themselves against an England team no doubt still pondering their 1-0 series loss in New Zealand early this month. But Rabada wasn’t about to take his eye off the ball for the sake of what remains little more than a marketing ploy.

“The [WTC] can put unnecessary pressure on us right now,” he said. “We shouldn’t really be looking at that. Yes, we don’t have any points and it does look bad. But if we can focus on what we want to do that should look after itself. We hadn’t been thinking about it, but when you mention it and you think about where we are on that table, it can get you into the mindset where you need to catch up. But at the moment we need to focus on the product and the by-product will look after itself.”

England’s ongoing navel-gazing can only help the South Africans, but they know they need to reassure their home crowds that they have turned a corner after India — and to translate the changes that have swept through the game off the field into positive performances where it matters most: in the middle.

“We’re going through a transition phase, and we need to see if we can step up,” Rabada said. “We do believe that we can. We spoke about where we want to go and where we’re at right now, and I think everyone is on the same page, which makes things a lot clearer.”

Winning the series would go a long way to making things clearer still. South Africa have not beaten England at home since 1999-00, when Boucher was in the team and CSA’s acting director of cricket, Graeme Smith, then just 19, had yet to make his debut.

First published by Cricbuzz.