John Arlott – Bulletproof Truth

Behold, the throne of games

“Say that cricket has nothing to do with politics and you say that cricket has nothing to do with life.” – John Arlott

Telford Vice / Ahmedabad

DIFFICULT as it may be to believe, The World’s Biggest Cricket Stadium sneaks up on you. Once the tangled traffic of Ahmedabad’s centre is sloughed off, head northwest on good roads for Motera and see a street of villas here, a school there, a hospital somewhere else, a temple or two, or three, and a metro rail above it all.

Anything vast enough to accommodate 132,000, each in the splendour of their own plastic seat, seems far away. Then, suddenly, it looms. Rather it sprawls squat and fat like some kind of massive primordial slug fallen on its side, foot curled to head. Once within its billowing innards you could be anywhere. Think the Gabba. On steroids.

Those who prefer their cricket on a maidan, at a club, in a village or a meadow, near a beach or a tree, under the gaze of a mountain or a gasometer, or in front of a starring pavilion and a supporting cast of stands, are unlikely to feel at home here.

This is a stage for cricket as spectacle, a place to come and bay for and against gladiators, and where the batting of an eyelid — much less a ball — can and will be analysed by the 132,000 watching on the big screens until it has been drained of all meaning, real and imagined. Is it a place fit for a men’s World Cup final, white-ball cricket’s spectacle among spectacles? Indubitably.

On Friday it will be the scene of, comparatively, a much smaller deal. Afghanistan and South Africa will play their last league match of the tournament here. Barring events that would make Bollywood scriptwriters blanche in disbelief, the Afghans are going home. The South Africans have secured a semifinal against Australia at the Eden Gardens next Thursday. This is as dead as dead rubbers get.

But it will be watched nonetheless — most keenly if South Africa bat second, a role in which they have failed to convince so far in the tournament. Should they bat first, the contest could well be decided by the time the sun sets over Ahmedabad. South Africa have won 62.57% of all ODIs in which they have batted first, and 65.52% of all those they have played in India when they have batted first. This year they have 90.91% of those in which they have batted first. Ergo, South Africa have been significantly more successful when they have batted first.

Also to be noted, considering Ravindra Jadeja took 5/33 against them in Kolkata on Sunday, is how they cope with Rashid Khan and the rest of Afghanistan’s crack spin attack. Whatever they do, the South Africans won’t want to make a bad memory at a place they hope to return to for the final on November 19.

Afghan supporters will look for signs of life in the wake of Glenn Maxwell hammering an undefeated 201 against them at the Wankhede on Tuesday. Not only did Maxwell hit his way into cricket’s big book of classic performances, he also took away from Afghanistan what looked for all money like their fifth win in eight matches as well as their fourth victory over teams considered stronger than them. With that went much of the credit the Afghans had earned for beating Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka, former World Cup champions all.

And Afghanistan, not only as a team but as a country that is in the news alarmingly often for horrific and harrowing reasons that go way beyond cricket, can use all the positivity it can find. One such reason is the treatment of women in that society. It would seem an obvious topic for questions asked of their players at press conferences — until the likely consequences of their answers for family members in Afghanistan is considered.

There is politics at play, too, in the very existence of The World’s Biggest Cricket Stadium in this far flung place in western India, far from the brighter lights of the bigger cities. Which is not to necessarily cast aspersions on how it, along with the rest of the solid new infrastructure rising all over Ahmedabad, came to be here. Would that more elected representatives, if they reach high office, remember where they came from and who put them there.

“Say that cricket has nothing to do with politics and you say that cricket has nothing to do with life,” John Arlott said. He knew more than a little about cricket, politics, life, and everything else. What he might have made of The World’s Biggest Cricket Stadium would have been good to know.

When: November 10, 2023 at 14:00 IST

Where: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

What to expect: Plenty of dry heat, a touch of turn and not a lot of swing. Anticipate a first innings of around 280 — even England managed that — when the team in the field aren’t India, who blitzed Pakistan for 191 here.

Teams:

Afghanistan

Fazalhaq Farooqi could return at the expense of Noor Ahmad, although Mujeeb Ur Rahman might need compassionate leave in the wake of dropping Glenn Maxwell on 33 in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Tactics & strategy

A slow burn with the bat, a strong turn with the ball. The Afghans aren’t flashy at the crease, but they have been solid enough after being dismissed for 156 by Bangladesh: 272/8 and 284 against India and England, both in Delhi, 291/5 against Australia at the Wankhede. Much has been made of their spinners, but the seamers have claimed 21 of the 48 wickets taken by the bowlers.

Probable XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Ikram Alikhil, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq

South Africa

Andile Phehlukwayo is the only member of the squad who has yet to play a game in this World Cup.

That’s an arbitrary fact, but the South Africans attracted unwanted attention — politically and otherwise — when Aaron Phangiso was the only one of their players who rode the bench throughout the 2015 edition.

Tactics & strategy

Bat first and bat big. There is no longer uncertainty over South Africa’s preferred way of going about things. That doesn’t mean they can’t chase or that their quality attack can’t hurt opposing line-ups if they field first, but they do better when the batters have already bullied a welt of runs into the scorebook.

Probable XI: Temba Bavuma (capt), Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Gerald Coetzee.

Did you know?

— Pace has taken almost double the amount of wickets as spin — 28 versus 15 — at this venue and at a better average — 32.04 versus 37.93 — during the World Cup.

— Pakistan and the Netherlands have conceded 300 in the tournament three times each, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka twice, and England and South Africa once. Afghanistan? Zero.

— Since these teams played their only ODI against each other, at the 2019 World Cup, Afghanistan have won 43.90% of their matches in the format and South Africa 56.86%.

What they said:

“As a team we feel proud. We are happy with what we did in this World Cup. But, as a captain, I wanted and I expected more. We should have done better.” — Hashmatullah Shahidi rues his team’s squandered chance to beat Australia.

“It’s just that it’s being compared to what we have done batting first, which has been exceptional. We haven’t been horrific chasing; it’s one or two games where we’ve slipped up, which is part of the game.” — David Miller doesn’t believe South Africa are more beatable when they bat second.

Squads:

Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq

South Africa: Temba Bavuma (capt), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Rassie van der Dussen, Marco Jansen, Andile Phehlukwayo, Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lizaad Williams

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Conway goes a long way to find a place he can trust

“He looked at me with those steely eyes of his and he said, ‘I want to play cricket for South Africa and I want to get good marks.’” – Devon Conway’s high school coach, Adrian Norris.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

A superbly fit, overtly competitive, ultimately ordinary off-spinner leaves Pietermaritzburg for Nottingham and becomes Kevin Pietersen. An unflashy allrounder goes from Johannesburg to Wellington and turns into Grant Elliott. They are among a slew of examples where those came from: South Africa. Devon Conway added his name to the list this week.

Conway’s 200 at Lord’s made him the 111th man to reach a century on Test debut and the 12th from South Africa. Sort of. Andrew Hudson, Jacques Rudolph, Alviro Petersen, Faf du Plessis, Stiaan van Zyl and Stephen Cook know the feeling of making a hundred in their first Test. So do Kepler Wessels and Keaton Jennings.

But Wessels’ 162 at the Gabba in November 1982 was scored from under a not exactly baggy green helmet, while Jennings made his 112 at Wankhede in December 2016 wearing three lions rampant. As did Andrew Strauss for his 112 against New Zealand in May 2004 at Lord’s, Matt Prior for his unbeaten 126 against West Indies in May 2007 also at Lord’s, and Jonathan Trott for his 119 against Australia at the Oval in August 2009.

Conway’s headgear is black and emblazoned with a silver fern. At his high school, St John’s College in Johannesburg, it didn’t matter much on Wednesday that he does not don the protea badge. “We watched bits and pieces [on television] between classes,” Adrian Norris, the master in charge of cricket and a major influence on the player Conway has become, told Cricbuzz on Thursday. “He got to 30, and then we had load-shedding for three hours. So we kept track online from 30 until he was about 105, when we were able to watch again.”

Norris’ words help explain why Conway moved from Joburg to Wellington in August 2017. South Africa’s poorly maintained infrastructure means there isn’t enough electricity to keep all of the country’s lights on all of the time. So, sporadically since January 2008 and sometimes for days and weeks on end, scheduled rolling blackouts share the darkness. Sometimes your lights are off while your friends’ kilometres away are on. Sometimes it’s the other way around. You know when you will be able to cook dinner by consulting an app — several are readily available — on your smartphone.

Load-shedding has become emblematic of a South Africa that is failing to meet the expectations of a nation that, by defeating apartheid at the ballot box in April 1994, thought its worst days were behind it. Twenty-seven years on, we know our trust was misplaced.

“Devon was always the type of person who wanted trust,” Norris said. “We made sure we looked after him — we would get him something to eat, because sometimes he would skip the boarding school breakfast — and then he produced the goods and scored hundreds. He’s a very loyal person. It’s difficult to get into his trust, but once you’re in there you will be for life. He’ll do anything for you.”

Maybe Conway couldn’t trust South Africa enough to want to continue to make a life and a career there. Aged 26, he sold his home, his car and much of the rest of his material possessions and, with his partner, headed for New Zealand.

He had had a solid junior career — he made two half-centuries for Gauteng’s under-13 side, a hundred for the under-15s, and two centuries and a double ton for the under-19s. He scored 13 centuries in provincial first-class cricket. But at the higher franchise level, where he played only 21 matches in more than six years, Conway never reached three figures in 36 innings. So how big a role did cricket play in his decision?

It’s a worn trope that South Africa chases away some of its best and brightest in the cause of trying to make its national teams look more like the nation they represent. Did Conway feel hard done by because he is white? “Absolutely not,” Norris said. “In all our conversations we’ve had, he has never brought that up. He and his partner just wanted a different life experience, and that’s what they’ve got.”

Norris spoke of an apartment near the Wanderers, paid for by Gauteng cricket, that housed some of the province’s most promising players. Conway was among them. “In that flat lived five or six black African guys who were his mates. At times he would get picked ahead of them, and at times one of them would get picked ahead of him. I think he would have said, ‘These are my mates. How can I say I’m not getting picked because of the colour of my skin? They’re getting picked because they’re good enough.’”

A less often acknowledged aspect of the race dynamic is that, were it not for South Africa’s efforts to equalise opportunities across the game, world cricket would likely never have heard of Makhaya Ntini, Hashim Amla, Vernon Philander or Kagiso Rabada. Their talent and skill was undoubted and they worked hard for the success they earned. But talent, skill and hard work aren’t enough in a society more cruelly skewed in favour of the affluent than any other. The affluent are disproportionately white.

All but one of the South Africans who have won Test caps playing for other countries have come from relatively affluent whiteness. They, or their families, have had access to means to change their realities. Those means have been purposefully denied others. At 26, Conway owned property and a car and other stuff worth buying. Millions of his comparatively less well-off compatriots, almost all of them black and brown, their prospects for a decent life stolen from them by substandard education, low level jobs — if they have work at all — and life in a tin shack — if they are not surviving on the street — have nothing to sell and no hope of starting over somewhere else. That is by design, not accident. The single exception proves the rule: Basil D’Oliveira had to rescue himself, with John Arlott’s assistance, from just such an existence to show the world how well he could play cricket. The world outside South Africa, that is.

Even so, Conway is not a cookie-cutter example of privilege — he needed a bursary to gain entry to one of the country’s most elite schools. “I remember that interview,” Norris said. “I asked him why he wanted to come to St John’s, and he looked at me with those steely eyes of his and he said, ‘I want to play cricket for South Africa and I want to get good marks.’”

Did it sadden Norris that New Zealand, not South Africa, is reaping the benefits of the first half of that ambition? “Kids who come through our hands, we obviously want them to represent their country of birth. But the reality of the situation is that he is representing himself and challenging himself at the highest possible level. The world has become so small. Sportsmen will go overseas because that’s where the money is.”

Umpteen cricketminded reactionaries have been spewing ill-considered race politics on social media since about the time the power went out at St John’s on Wednesday. That professional sport in South Africa is too small and impoverished to contain all the talent the country produces is not a truth often aired there. Conway himself was in the same dormitory at St John’s boarding facility as Scott Spedding, who captained the first XV and went on to play 23 Tests for France, and Kenyan-born Brit Chris Froome, the four-time Tour de France champion.

“We’ve got a kid at St John’s now who’s just been signed by [top French rugby club] La Rochelle,” Norris said. “And he’s black African. The professional systems overseas are just so much more established. There’s money there. You can go and play [rugby] in the third league in France and you can do very well [financially]. You can play [cricket] for a second-tier county in England and do pretty well for six or seven months of the year.”

Conway has raised himself above and beyond that level, but Norris said he hadn’t forgotten what mattered: “He’s very humble and calm. He never got too hard on himself at school, or too excited. He’s very balanced. Sometimes I’ll send him a message, and it comes back with, ‘Thank you, Sir.’ The ups and downs of cricket over the years have been his classroom. He’s taken all those lessons on board and he’s now producing the goods.”

Not that Norris was trying to hog Conway’s limelight: “It’s madness to claim an individual.” He listed Jimmy Cook, Graham Ford, Grant Morgan as instrumental in moulding the new toast of New Zealand — the seventh man to score a double century on Test debut and the first debutant foreign opener to get to three figures on England’s seaming pitches.

Norris also made a case for schools like St John’s no longer existing chiefly to prop up privilege, even if from outside their tall walls it can look like that is still their mission: “We’re here to expose kids to different aspects of life and to turn them into good human beings.”

By the look and sound of him these past two days, and quite apart from his brilliant batting, Conway would seem to have added his name to that list, too.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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