Lahore – Bulletproof Truth

Miller massacre can’t stop everything coming up Valentine’s roses for Pakistan

It’s one thing to be given an opportunity, another to take it. To David Miller’s credit, he did.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

UNTIL Saturday, all David Miller and Al Capone shared was that they both swung a bat left-handed — Miller for the fences, Capone for the skulls of those he thought had crossed him. Now both are implicated in Valentine’s Day massacres separated by 11,640 kilometres and 92 years.

Number 2,122 North Clark Street on Chicago’s north side is a long way from Block E2 in Hafeez Kardar Road in Lahore’s Gulberg III district in every sense. At 10.30am on February 14, 1929, four men associated with Capone put seven members of a rival gang against a garage wall and machine-gunned them to death. The headline in the papers wrote itself: “The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre”. On a cool, misty evening at Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday, Pakistan’s bowlers employed far more skill than mafia murderers to mow down South Africa’s plodding batters more or less where they stood. But that wasn’t Saturday’s happily bloodless massacre.

South Africa were 46/4 when Miller arrived at the scene of what was fast coagulating into a crime against batting. Twenty-five balls later they were 65/7. The Pakistanis had bowled with precision and penetration on a turning pitch, but the South Africans looked less like cricketers and more like clumsily bludgeoning mobsters as they lurched into ill-thought, ill-played, ill-fated strokes. Having kept the series alive by winning on Friday — their first success of the tour in the wake of losses in both Tests and the first T20I — they seemed to be going gently into that good night.

Miller had gone a dozen innings in the format, eight of them completed, without reaching 50. Before the series he had spoken of making his seniority — his 78 T20I caps were almost three times as many as anyone else in the squad — count for something against opponents widely written up as superior. This was his chance to make good on that hope. It’s one thing to be given an opportunity, another to take it. To Miller’s credit, he did.

He faced three balls for two runs before he hit Usman Qadir through backward square leg for four. There were four more were that came from, along with seven sixes. His unbeaten 85 came off 45 balls and was the closest he has yet ventured to a second century in the format. There was more than a touch of Capone’s intent in the last over of the innings, when Miller launched four sixes off Faheem Ashraf. Of the 58 runs scored in the unbroken stand, Miller owned 47. The last four overs yielded 54. Forty-five were Miller’s. And yet, as he walked off with Lutho Sipamla’s arm garlanding his shoulders, he was muttering sternly — presumably about the three deliveries in the final over, one a wide, that he had not punished.

Thus were South Africa batted back into the game. If you’re Pakistan, make that battered. Babar Azam had won the toss for the first time in the series, and so was able to give his bowlers the chance to utilise a ball drier than it would be later in the game when the fog thickened. Until Miller’s assault, it seemed the attack’s excellence — particularly that of debutant leg spinner Zahid Mahmood, who took 3/40 — had won the day and the series. But, suddenly, Pakistan had serious batting to do. Even so, only once in the seven day-night T20Is at this ground that had been won by the team batting first had they scored fewer than South Africa’s 164/8.

Babar opened with Mohammad Rizwan in the first two games and was dismissed for nought and five in the first and second overs. Did that influence his decision to come in at first drop on Saturday? That proved the right thing to do, and not only because Rizwan and Haider Ali gave Pakistan stability in a first-wicket stand of 51. On top of that, Babar made 44 and was able to marshall the innings until the 14th over.

While that was happening Tabraiz Shamsi was counterpunching for all his worth. His first delivery of the match, to Haider in the seventh over, pitched outside off stump and jagged so sharply it hit the top of leg. His next over brought Rizwan’s wicket, trapped in front for 42. The downfalls of Hussain Talat and Asif Ali would complete Shamsi’s career-best haul of 4/25.

Pakistan needed 40 off 30 when Shamsi had completed his four overs, and 28 off 18 after Bjorn Fortuin had bowled the last over of spin seen in the match. So the home side were, by then, favourites to win. But South Africa’s seamers allowed whatever needle there was left in the contest to escape. Dwaine Pretorius — Saturday’s hero for his 5/17 — went for 12 in an over and Andile Phehlukwayo looked like he was bowling to an armed and dangerous Capone himself in what became the last over, which bled 20 runs.

Pakistan’s victory made them the first team to win 100 T20Is, which they achieved in their 163rd game in the format. South Africa slipped to their first defeat in seven bilateral T20I series in Asia and the United Arab Emirates, but their fourth successive series loss in the format.

Miller took South Africa closer than they should have come to pulling the series out of the fire, and they will hold up their performance on Friday as a model for the future. So Mark Boucher and his staff will return home happier than they would have been after the Tests. But there is work to do. As Boucher told an online press conference: “We didn’t come here to lose, and that’s tough.”

Not a lot of cricket is played in the mean streets of Chicago, but Boucher’s message would be understood there, too.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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The earth moves, and South Africa change direction

“Making sure that the batter doesn’t really know which ball is coming is key, and we did that really well today.” – Dwaine Pretorius

Telford Vice | Cape Town

EVERY journalist surely has had “small earthquake far away, none dead” slung at them by newsroom denizens as a prime example of what in the trade is called a non-story: not worth writing nor bothering readers about. At 6.4 on the Richter scale, the rumble that sent shudders upward and outward from 80 kilometres below Tajikistan just after 10pm on Friday was not small. Happily, it killed no-one. And, for South Africans, it was far away.

But it was felt in Lahore, where the earth moved again less than 24 hours later. As before, no-one was harmed. This time the news was indeed noted in faraway South Africa — because, for the first time on the tour of Pakistan, the visitors won.

Victory in the second T20I won’t answer the searching questions asked of South Africa while Pakistan were winning the Karachi and Rawalpindi Tests. But it was a step in the other direction from the shamble dictated by the dreary drumbeat of defeat, which before Saturday included five straight defeats in T20Is. This performance wasn’t perfect — Reeza Hendricks excepted, the top order batting was shaky — but when you’ve lost six of your last eight games across the formats, as South Africa have done, any win will do. This win, achieved by six wickets with 22 balls to spare, was better than most. The confidence generated in Thursday’s first T20I, which Pakistan won by three runs, was kept and most of the lesser aspects of that display were jettisoned.

“We learnt a lot of lessons out of the previous game,” Dwaine Pretorius told an online press conference. “Losing that one hurt us quite a bit. We went back to the drawingboard and devised a few plans as the bowling unit, who as a whole stuck to it really well today.”

The batters have let the side down more often than not. What changed on Saturday? “Especially in T20s, we’ve been playing a lot of good cricket,” Pretorius said. “I honestly believe we’ve maybe been losing one or two overs really badly. We’ve been trying to focus on, whenever that bad patch comes, not losing clusters of wickets. So we keep our intent high and don’t lose it.”

South Africa’s first hero was Tabraiz Shamsi, who didn’t concede more than five runs in any of his first three overs and came within a single of going scoreless in his fourth. He also had the reverse-sweeping Hussain Talat caught at backward point. Wrist spin of such high quality is rarely seen, nevermind when Lahore’s night sky is thick with the fog that makes gripping the ball securely difficult. Perhaps Shamsi was helped by the fact that the pitch didn’t offer as much turn as the surface used on Thursday. So conditions were closer to what he grew up with.

Then Pretorius trapped Babar Azam in front with his second delivery and ripped through the middle order to take 5/17. Ryan McLaren, David Wiese and Imran Tahir, twice, have also taken five wickets for South Africa’s men’s team in a T20I. But none have done so for so few runs. Pretorius delivered the 49th T20I five-wicket-haul in the 1,121st men’s match in the format. Twenty-four of them cost more runs than his effort. Pretorius’ haul was also the first five-for in the format in Pakistan, and the best performance against the Pakistanis in T20Is. He earned his success with a canny mix of slower balls and yorkers, not a little intelligence, and a more firmly braced front leg to make the most of his 1.86 metres.

“To say it was quite hard [to change his action] would be an under-statement,” Pretorius said. “I’ve been working for five to six months just getting that one thing right. Hopefully I can progress and make sure I can get the most out of my technique. You’re always looking for that five to 10% you can improve.

“I don’t have to think about it too much anymore, so I can focus more on the plans and the execution. It’s getting better but there’s still a lot I need to work on. I’ll keep doing that work, and hopefully in a couple of months we’ll see Dwaine 2.0.”

Pretorius had praise for South Africa’s support staff, notably bowling coach Charl Langeveldt: “I’ve learnt from so many guys involved here, especially Charl. Making sure that the batter doesn’t really know which ball is coming is key, and we did that really well today.”

Pakistan were limited to fewer than 10 runs in 14 of their overs. Three of the last four sailed for a dozen runs or more, thanks to Faheem Ashraf’s 12-ball 30 not out. But it took them 22 fewer balls to reach 100 on Thursday, when they scored 25 more runs. And on Saturday they owed a lot to Mohammad Rizwan, a centurion in his previous two innings, staying until the 16th over for his 51. Would South Africa’s brittle batting stay in one piece long enough for the bowlers’ hard work not to be wasted this time?

The question hung in the mist when Shaheen Afridi dazzled Janneman Malan with the first delivery of the innings, which shot off the outside edge and past the stumps. Malan was still caught in the headlights when the second ball, pitched on his legs, took his thigh pad on its way to bowling him. In his next over Afridi induced Jon-Jon Smuts to shovel a catch to mid-off. At 21/2 after 14 deliveries and at 46/2 after the powerplay — the same score as Pakistan at that stage — the ghosts of what had gone before in the past three weeks were set aswirl in the cold, damp murk that cloaked the scene.

But Hendricks and Pite van Biljon banished them with a stand of 77 off 54 balls. Van Biljon lived interestingly, using the back of his bat to reverse sweep Mohammad Nawaz for four and surviving being stumped off Usman Qadir because the leg spinner’s heel — which remains above the ground in his delivery stride — was adjudged not to have cut the line of the crease. Hendricks stayed out of that kind of trouble in a buttoned-down innings. Each scored 42. Qadir, all but unplayable in taking 2/4 in his first two overs on Thursday, hardly turned the ball until his last over, when suddenly he ragged it square. Too late, you could hear all of Pakistan saying as the nation stared at their preferred device.

Hendricks and Van Biljon were dismissed eight balls apart, but the age, experience and nous of David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen dispelled any notion of the contest being turned on its head. A half-chance or so wasn’t taken and edges went for four, and Miller just about sealed the deal with a booming six over long-on off Iftikhar Ahmed. That left one to get, and Miller duly dabbed the next ball into the covers for the single.

It was a stroke that spoke of South Africa’s respect for their worthy opponents, maybe because the tams will be at the same place at the same time on Sunday to decide the series. And because, until the matter is settled, you never know what could go bump in the night.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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South Africa improve, but not enough to win

“Ja, but our standard is high.” – Heinrich Klaasen refuses to feel better about a narrow loss.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

SOUTH Africa’s players huddled so tightly together on Lahore’s outfield on Thursday that you would have struggled to smuggle a team sheet between them. Heinrich Klaasen spoke earnestly, hands slicing through evening air heavy with dew to punctuate his points. His players listened intently. David Miller made a significant contribution to the conversation. Klaasen handed a cap to debutant Jacques Snyman, who received it as if he had been given the keys to the car of his dreams.

Eyes locked. Shoulders overlapped. Heads nodded to the unmistakable rhythm of agreement. Even from the other hemisphere you could feel the unity. There was heat in that huddle, which was more a hug.

For South Africans weary of turning on their televisions to see what new hell has befallen the side in Pakistan, they were the picture of a team as opposed to a collection of individuals. It helped that none of them had played in the Tests, and so didn’t bring baggage from Karachi and Rawalpindi, where South Africa were almost as good at beating themselves as Pakistan were at winning. Of the XI who had played in South Africa’s previous T20I, against England at Newlands in December, only Reeza Hendricks, Lutho Sipamla and Tabraiz Shamsi were in the team. Another good thing: England won that series 3-0.

Even so, South Africa took 200 T20I caps into Thursday’s match: 10 more than Pakistan, which you wouldn’t have thought considering the noise made, far and wide, about a looming mismatch. All this bunch of South Africans needed to convince, most importantly, themselves that they belonged on the same field as opponents who had already been written up as victors was for something to go conspicuously right, preferably early in the piece …

Second ball of the match. Babar Azam bunts it to the on side and sets off. The bowler, the left-arm spinning, right-arm throwing Bjorn Fortuin, hares after it. He sprawls to make a scragging stop and, seeing a fraction more than one stump, throws from a prone position. Bails balloon, stumps splay. Babar is short of his ground by a metre and more. Roll credits.

It doesn’t go more conspicuously right than that. But, of course, the credits didn’t roll then. First Mohammad Rizwan scored 104 not out, his second unbeaten century in five days and an innings as bristling with aggression as his previous hundred was built on discipline. And the lack of firepower in South Africa’s attack, denuded of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortjé, was exposed. Pakistan play without the arrogance that sours the impression other teams make, but they are perhaps the most alpha male of all sides — they will bully bowling that doesn’t stand up for itself. Only Shamsi, who turned the ball sharply in his first match of the tour, escaped with an economy rate of less than a run a ball. Junior Dala was at the other end of the equation, sailing for 25 off two overs. Happily, although Rizwan was dropped twice in the 90s, the overall standard of South Africa’s fielding was a notch or three up from what the Test team delivered.

Seven totals higher than Pakistan’s effort of 169/6 had been scored in the first innings of the previous 11 T20Is in Lahore. And all but one of the six times the team batting first had won a day-night T20I there, they had made more than the home side’s total. How big a factor would the thickening dew be in the second innings? Enough to fog up Aleem Dar’s glasses and thus furrow his brow, for a start.

Hendricks faced only a dozen deliveries in an opening stand of 53 dominated by Janneman Malan, who hit eight fours — mostly muscled to the on side — in his 44. But Hendricks saw Usman Qadir’s leg break hit the top of Malan’s off stump and his googly crash into the top of Snyman’s middle stump. Then Miller flashed at a delivery from Faheem Ashraf that faded across the left-hander, and nicked it. At 83/3, and needing more than 10 from each of the last eight overs, South Africa’s challenge was waning.

Klaasen joined Hendricks to rekindle it with a stand that reached 32 before Klaasen picked out the man on the square leg boundary. But before that he was party to something previously unknown. Given out leg-before to Qadir’s googly, Klaasen offered up a prayer to the third umpire. Missing leg, the gizmo said. And with that Dar’s record of never having been proven wrong in T20I referrals was erased at the 12th attempt.

Hendricks ran himself out for 54 by dashing for a single that was never there after losing sight of a ball he had edged into his pads. It needed a dive from the swooping Rizwan to complete the dismissal. Surely that was the end of the South Africans?

It looked that way when they headed into the last over needing 19. Two singles accrued before Dwaine Pretorius hammered Ashraf over long-on for six. Another single left the equation at 10 off two. Fortuin, hobbling on a twisted ankle, found the wherewithal to fashion a four over his shoulder. One ball. Six to get. Fortuin lined up the midwicket fence, but didn’t get enough bat on it and the ground-hugging ball was fielded at deep backward square.

Even though the South Africans showed more fight on Thursday than in Karachi and Rawalpindi, Pakistan deserved their win, not least because of the brilliance of Rizwan and Qadir. No-one needs to tell the visitors it’s a long way from going down with credit in a T20I to competing in a Test, but South Africans could see something on their televisions they haven’t spotted for a while: light at the end of the tunnel.

South Africans besides Klaasen, that is: “Ja, but our standard is high. One or two things with the bowling didn’t go according to plan, so we’ll reassess that. And then those four or five overs in the middle [of the innings when Qadir went for two runs off each of his first two overs], when we really made life very difficult for ourselves. Because we could have chased between seven and 10 in the last over and got over the line easily. It is pleasing to see we are playing good cricket, but it’s frustrating and disappointing by our standards. We know exactly what we want and what we need to do to be a successful team.”

He sounded so South African. He sounded utterly real. He sounded like the captain of a team, not a collection of individuals.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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The most experienced team in the Lahore T20I series? It’s not Pakistan …

“Cricket is played the same way at all different levels. The only difference is the intensity.” – David Miller

Telford Vice | Cape Town

SECOND-STRING. Inexperienced. Out of their depth. Not up to the standard that will be required of them. South Africa’s squad for the T20I series against Pakistan in Lahore, which starts on Thursday, has been written off in every which way.

Heinrich Klaasen, the captain, bristled in the face of that kind of questioning at an online press conference on Tuesday, and on Wednesday it was David Miller’s turn to surf the swell of negativity: “We know we’re up against a really strong Pakistan team. We do respect that. At the same time, in T20 cricket if you prep well and you’ve got a great team, there are opportunities to still lose. I don’t see why we can’t compete against one of the stronger teams.”

Of the South Africa Test squad that arrived in Pakistan in the middle of January, only George Linde, Dwaine Pretorius, Tabraiz Shamsi and Lutho Sipamla have stayed on for the T20Is. The rest have gone home in time to quarantine for a Test series against Australia next month. Thanks to that, South Africa have been weakened for the T20I series. Except that the Tests have had to be postponed because the Aussies have gone AWOL over Covid fears.

How much the South Africans have lost is difficult to gauge. One measure is the fact that the 17 players who are no longer in Pakistan have taken with them 1,012 international caps across the formats. The T20I squad has only 443 caps between them, and 210 of them — 47.40% — belong to Miller.

But would the departed players have been able to give of their best considering several of them were part of a team who were convincingly beaten in both Tests? Quinton de Kock, for instance, would have captained the side, kept wicket and opened the batting. And all that after he had recorded his lowest average — 11.50 — in all of his 21 Test series. So it could be no bad thing that all that hurt isn’t hanging around the dressingroom in Lahore.

“It’s a really refreshing group of guys; it was always going to be,” Miller said. “Yes, we’re going to come under quite a lot of pressure in the games, we would assume. But it’s a great opportunity for guys to step up. We know we’re representing the Proteas, regardless of whether you’re playing your first game or your 100th game.

“We’ve come with the mindset of competing in every department. We don’t want to be hiding away by saying we’re just building. We’re actually here to win. I think we’re very capable of doing that, if we just stick to what the guys have done in domestic cricket and travelling around the world to play in T20 competitions.”

Pakistan’s squad for the T20Is comes with 835 international caps of all kinds. Or almost twice as many as their opponents. But add up the first-class, list A and senior T20 games the South Africans have played and you get 4,046. Do the same with the Pakistanis and, despite the fact that they have two more players, you arrive at 3,997. While a difference of 49 is marginal, it’s plainly untrue to label South Africa the less experienced squad in the series.

“The guys have been around the block in domestic cricket for many years; they know their games,” Miller said. “Cricket is played the same way at all different levels. The only difference is the intensity. That’s been brought to the guys’ attention in preparation this week. They need to know that everything is faster but the game remains the same. The guys know their strengths and weaknesses, and if they can gather their thoughts under pressure I don’t see why we can’t go away with a victory in this series.”

Miller made his point in another way, albeit inadvertently, before the presser started. Having sat down in front of his camera, he realised he was wearing a shirt that did not have the team’s crest on the chest. So he nipped out of view for a few seconds, and when he returned he had changed into a shirt that was properly emblazoned.

Different shirt. Same player. Different level. Same game.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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What’s having Covid like? Ask Heinrich Klaasen …

“I couldn’t run 20 or 30 metres, or do anything for two or three minutes without my heart rate going up too high.” – Heinrich Klaasen

Telford Vice | Cape Town

COVID-19 has killed more than two million worldwide, but there are still those who think the virus can’t hurt them. Especially if they are young and fit. Heinrich Klaasen can tell them why they’re wrong. He is 29, athletic and clearly in excellent shape. And that didn’t spare him some of the disease’s more serious effects after he tested positive on December 3.

“It was a difficult two months,” Klaasen told an online press conference in Lahore on Tuesday. “The first 16 or 17 days I couldn’t really do much. I was very ill. The problem came with the fact that I couldn’t start exercising. Or I could start exercising again, but I couldn’t run 20 or 30 metres, or do anything for two or three minutes without my heart rate going up too high.

“There are protocols that one has to follow to be able to rebuild your workload, but I could not stick to that programme. It is a very simple programme where you exercise for 10 or 15 minutes a day and [perform exercises] like walking 200 metres. It took me a long time to just get my heart rate under control so that I could exercise at least a little bit without getting past the phase where it is too dangerous. It was mentally very difficult to just have to sit at home for two months. I could do nothing.

“Later I at least had a weekend in the bush where I could get away from it all and get a fresh head before we had to come here. For the last three weeks I have been able to train really hard with Mandla [Mashimbyi, the Titans coach]. I’m on track, I’m fit and I’m safe, and I can at least play cricket again.”

Klaasen was among three members of South Africa’s party who contracted Covid despite being inside the bio-bubble for the white-ball series against England in November and December. The visitors went home early, with three of the six games unplayed, because of the prevalence of the virus in what was supposed to be a secure environment. That was no doubt a factor in Australia’s decision to pull out of their Test series in South Africa next month despite CSA subsequently hosting Sri Lanka’s men’s team, Pakistan’s women’s side and the franchise one-day competition without recording a single positive test. CSA have since complained to the ICC about CA’s refusal to allow their team to tour.

While Covid took its toll on Klaasen, it also gave him an opportunity. He is in Pakistan to captain South Africa in three T20Is in Lahore, the first on Thursday. Because of anti-virus measures, only four members of the squad that lost the Test series 2-0 on Monday will stay on for the T20Is. Had it not been for that it’s doubtful that Klaasen would have been given the chance to lead the side.

A complication is that he hasn’t played since the second T20I against England in Paarl on November 29. “It’s difficult to tell you how my form is,” Klaasen said. “We’ll probably see after these three games, but I’m hitting the ball very nicely.”

But he sounded like a captain while he was defending his squad against the allegation that they may not be of the required quality: “We are by no means a second-string T20 side. Yes, we do have a couple of guys who are normally in the squad but are not here. But that’s due to the way we’re playing during Covid.”

Klaasen was not hospitalised during his struggle with the virus, and he has been able to return to something like normal life. Others have not been as fortunate. Unlike Klaasen, they are no longer here to remind us to be careful.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Cricket where there was chaos

“We trust that the right decisions will get made if something does happen. They’ve assured us they will look after us.” – Mark Boucher on security arrangements for South Africa’s tour to Pakistan.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

MARK Boucher stood in the chaos spread across the floor of his bedroom in his parents’ home in East London. To this side were bats, pads, thigh pads, gloves and boxes. To the other were wicketkeeping gloves and pads, inners, caps, hats, whites and tracksuits. Balls hid in plain sight, ready to twist unsuspecting ankles. Somewhere in between all that was a kit coffin. An empty kit coffin, and that wasn’t not good.

It was the middle of the morning. By the afternoon Boucher would be on a plane. To Pakistan. Dave Richardson had broken a finger and he had been called up to make his Test debut. Best he get packing …

That was more than 23 years ago, and much has changed. Then, Boucher had a lifestyle in keeping with the fact that he was two months shy of his 21st birthday. On Thursday, he rose briefly from his seat during an online press conference. He was back in view seconds later with an explanation: “Sorry – my laaitjie [youngster] just came in.”

Boucher is again packing for Pakistan. Now South Africa’s coach, on Friday he will be part of the first squad from his country to go there in more than 13 years. They will play Tests in Karachi — from January 26 — and Rawalpindi followed by three T20Is, all in Lahore. Boucher will no doubt tell his players stories about his experiences in Pakistan. Like the time, during his debut in Sheikhupura, a delivery from Mushtaq Ahmed rattled through Pat Symcox’s stumps without dislodging a bail. Others’ tales of Pakistan are all this generation of South Africa’s players have to go on because none of them has been there, discounting Faf du Plessis’ brief spell with PSL outfit Peshawar Zalmi in November. Cricketers’ kryptonite — the real world — kept the international game out of Pakistan from 2009 to 2015. But security in the politically fractious country has improved enough to allow three Tests, eight ODIs and 17 T20Is to played in the past five years.

“Safety is a major concern,” Boucher said. “A lot of guys have gone over there to do a recce of the situation and they’ve come back and said it’s safe. We need to get back in there and start playing cricket. We trust that the right decisions will get made if something does happen. They’ve assured us they will look after us. I think we’re getting state security, which is good for us. It’s about getting out there and playing games of cricket and letting people do their jobs around us.”

Boucher played five Tests and 10 ODIs in Pakistan from 1997 to 2007. He said an interesting challenge awaited the South Africans on the field. “It’s tough cricket. It’s different to the other sub-continent countries that you go to. Usually when you go to India, the ball turns a lot. In Pakistan, we haven’t been in games where the ball’s turned a lot. It’s conducive to fast bowling, actually. Reverse swing was very big in those days. The rules and regulations are a lot tighter nowadays on the ball and getting it to reverse, so I don’t know that you are going to see a lot of that.”

Pakistan’s contrasts extended to the basics of playing the game. “The areas that you score in are different, the bowlers bowl straighter lines, the ball starts to reverse, which is something a lot of our batters probably would never have seen, especially in a young group. So there is a lot of adapting to those conditions you have to do as a batter. But it’s one of those places where you’re up against a good bowling line-up, and if you apply your mind to batting and spend some good time at the crease, there’s a lot of runs out there.”

He couldn’t offer much on Pakistan as a place. “The last time we were there we weren’t really allowed out of the hotel. So I don’t see it as being any different to that. The whole message from me to the team is that cricket hasn’t been played in Pakistan for quite some time, and it’s been missed in that country. There won’t be crowds but there will be big hype about a big country coming to play cricket there again. We’ve got to buy into that and put on a good show for everyone in Pakistan.”

And for South Africa to do their bit to put Pakistan back on world cricket’s map of major destinations. “It’s got its own brand of cricket. I used to watch the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis running in and reverse swinging the ball. To actually get out there in my first Test and face it was very foreign to me. So it’s very important that we get back to playing in Pakistan.”

Not including South Africa’s abandoned tour to India in March, this will be the first time they have embarked on a venture abroad under the fully-blown pandemic. The complications caused by Covid-19 could force the visitors to name a weakened squad for the T20s, in which it seems they will be coached by Enoch Nkwe, Boucher’s assistant. “Logistically it is a bit of a nightmare, especially with a new squad coming in maybe a little earlier. And the two having to mix and bubbles crossing over. We are preparing for most of our management to come back and maybe one or two of them staying over.

“I would say it won’t be our strongest team because the emphasis is probably on Test cricket against Australia [who are due in South Africa for three Tests in February and March]. It might be a watered down Proteas T20 team, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s not ideal to throw guys into the deep end and make them play international cricket when they’re maybe not ready, but there aren’t many other choices at the moment.”

The lack of options might extend to South Africa’s living arrangements, what with teams in Australia trapped on a single floor of their hotels. But things may be better than that in Pakistan. “I know our security officers are looking at a club next door to the hotel, where there’s a pool, a gym and a field where the guys can run around.”

Still, previous experiences of Asia will stand the South Africans in good stead. “We’re used to spending tours in hotels almost in a lockdown scenario in the sub-continent. We’ve got a games room to try and keep the guys interested. Netflix has become a bit of a winner with the guys laying in their rooms watching a few things.

“We’re expecting nothing different from touring in the sub-continent. You stay in your own room for most of the time and there’s always a team room available. The difficult part is there’s a lot of testing going on. The first couple of days you’ve got to self-isolate. We’ve done it before and it was very successful [during the home Test series against Sri Lanka in the past three weeks]. We’ll make it work. We have to: it’s important that we get cricket back onto the TVs again.”

Boucher said his players had enjoyed their respite from that kind of regimen in the time they had away from the game after the Sri Lanka series. “They’ve been allowed to go home. But we were given a stern chat by the doctors that we needed to look after ourselves. We’ve had two [coronavirus] tests before we leave for Pakistan. We told the guys to try stay away from big crowds. As long as they spend time with families and they do it in a good environment and follow the government regulations, that’s the only thing you can really do. You can’t put them in a jail cell for the whole year.”

Boucher looked assured, in control and ready for action as he spoke. He’s learnt a lot in the past 23 years. Including how to leave yourself enough time to bundle the chaos into your luggage.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Pakistan offers plenty to ponder

“There were heavy security measures put in place, particularly for the overseas players. They even shut down roads that were the route from the airport to the hotel. It was over the top in a way, but I felt safe.” – JP Duminy on playing in Pakistan.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

IS 10 days long enough for a team to play three T20s in two cities 1,200 kilometres apart? And that after one of the sides involved have had 15 white-ball games — no two of them consecutively at the same venue — across 45 days in a couple of different countries a hemisphere apart? That’s already a tall order. Now add this: the country hosting the three T20s is Pakistan. And the place that team will come from, and several of their players will need to return to after the 10-day window, is India.

South Africa are about to lurch into three ODIs and as many T20s against England at home, and another three in each format against visiting Australia. Then it’s off to India for three seemingly gratuitous ODIs.

That jaunt ends on March 18. In other years the South Africans in the IPL, which starts on March 29, would stay on in India. Not this year. If two security experts who are to visit Lahore and Karachi give the all-clear in the next few weeks, South Africa’s squad — which promises to be similar to their T20 side — will journey from Kolkata, where the third ODI against India will be played, to Pakistan.

That won’t be simple. For reasons bigger than cricket, but not unrelated to it, there are no direct routes by air between India and Pakistan. Instead the South Africans will have to go via Colombo, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Abu Dhabi or even Istanbul on flights ranging from almost nine hours to more than 33 hours. That done, and the three T20s played, some of the players will need to make the trip in reverse. Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, Lungi Ngidi and Imran Tahir are sure to have to hurry: all or some of them will likely be required for the IPL opener between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Others who could be in a similar but slightly slower boat are Kagiso Rabada, David Miller, Chris Morris, AB de Villiers — who seems set to come out of international retirement, at least at T20 level — and Dale Steyn, who are sprinkled between Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

That has led to fresh doubts that the Pakistan tour will go ahead, as mooted, in March. And not only because those now running Cricket South Africa’s daily affairs may be less than keen to see through a commitment made in November by a now removed administration that is under investigation for mismanagement.

The IPL ends on May 24 and South Africa are next in action in the Caribbean in July. So they would appear to be time enough. But whether the tour happens at all is dependent on a favourable report by the security professionals, who are, understandably, insisting on carrying out their inspection under match conditions in both Lahore and Karachi, the likely venues for the T20s.

They had hoped to do so during Bangladesh’s three T20s and Test in Pakistan, a tour scheduled to end on February 11. But the same company is part of the security details for the ongoing under-19 World Cup in South Africa, which ends on February 9, and consequently they have been unable to go to Pakistan. Their next opportunity will be during the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which is set to run from February 20 to March 22 — and Pakistan in full for the first time, having been staged mostly in the United Arab Emirates in the past.

One of the security specialists told Cricbuzz they had confidence that “Pakistan have the ability to write and implement a very rigorous security plan”, as they had for the teams from Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Bangladesh who have been to the country since international cricket resumed there in May 2015. Since then, a World XI that included Hashim Amla, Du Plessis, Miller, Tahir and Morné Morkel have also played in Pakistan. That followed more than six years of Pakistanis not being able to watch their team play at home in the wake of a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore on March 3, 2009 that killed eight and wounded nine.

But, the expert said, while South Africa’s players would likely be safe they would also be trapped in a sanitised bubble: “That means no team dinners outside of the hotel and no going to places of entertainment. I was in Lahore between 18 and 24 months ago, and the roads are closed from the team hotel to Gaddafi stadium. They actually clear the road of traffic.”

JP Duminy’s recollection of the security arrangements for the two ODIs he played, in Multan and Lahore in October 2007, is that they were “not as hectic but they were quite heavy”. He was comparing his experience then to when he played for Islamabad United against Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL final in Karachi in March 2018. Only three of the tournament’s total of 34 games that were not played in Dubai or Sharjah. The other two were in Lahore. “We flew in the day before, we practised, we spent the night, we played the game in the evening, and we left in the early hours of the next morning,” Duminy said. “We were in the country for between 36 and 40 hours. It was literally hotel, stadium and airport.

“The country was still under the microscope. There were heavy security measures put in place, particularly for the overseas players. They even shut down roads that were the route from the airport to the hotel. It was over the top in a way, but I felt safe.

“Those were the … not restrictions, but regulations for us to go. We were given assurities by the security company that it was safe to go. So we were fine.”

Would he go again, given the chance? “Yes, I think I would. If the green light was given by the security company: they would need to go and do a recce there.”

To Pakistanis, who live their country’s realities daily, this may seem an overly precious attitude, especially as it emanates from South Africa — where the streets are a long way from safe. The difference could be that cricket is precious to Pakistanis in a way that it isn’t to South Africans. But are the public willing to put up with being treated like undesirables if that’s what it takes to get the game back on their grounds at international level? If the past few years are the yardstick, it seems they are. Or that, unlike foreign players, they don’t have the choice.

First published by Cricbuzz.