Nortjé back, but balancing babies and bowling

“Anrich is a low-maintenance cricketer. He does his work and gets on with it.” – Robin Peterson

Telford Vice / Cape Town

ANRICH Nortjé didn’t go around the world in 80 days. He went nowhere, in a cricket sense, for 100 days more than that. When the monster moustache with a man attached stood ready to bowl on Friday, the equivalent of six months had passed since that last happened in a competitive match.

Delhi Capitals fans will thus expect Nortjé to be on hand for their first match of the IPL against Punjab Kings in Mullanpur on March 23. But they may need to temper their hopes with realism. Whether he will or won’t be there could hinge on reasons that go beyond cricket.  

Nortjé’s appearance for the Warriors in a CSA T20 Challenge match against the Tuskers at St George’s Park was the first time he had played in an official game since the second ODI against Australia in Bloemfontein on September 9 last year — when he left the field after bowling five overs. A lumbar stress fracture was discovered. It kept him out of the World Cup, South Africa’s Test series against India, and the SA20. He spent some of the downtime popping up in familiar places, notably as an ambassador during the men’s under-19 World Cup in South Africa in January and February.  

Nortjé’s 180 days of going nowhere slowly ended successfully on Friday. He was upstaged by Marco Jansen’s 4/19, but all things considered he would have been satisfied with his return of 0/12. His readiness wasn’t tested by bowling consecutive overs — he sent down the second, sixth, ninth and 15th — and the opposition weren’t the strongest. The Tuskers were bowled out for 88 and have lost both of their matches. But only eight of Nortjé’s 24 deliveries yielded runs off the bat and he was hit for just one four.

“He came through well,” Warriors coach Robin Peterson told Cricbuzz, adding that Nortjé had played two practice matches before his return. “His pace was up; he’s as quick as I’ve seen him. He looks happy with his body. Now his target is playing back-to-back competitive games.”

That won’t happen before Sunday. Micaela Nortjé is due to give birth to the couple’s first child imminently. Consequently Nortjé is not leaving Gqeberha for the Warriors’ away games. He missed Sunday’s match against the Dolphins in Durban and won’t be in Centurion for the clash with the Titans on Wednesday. But he has been pencilled in for the home game against Boland on Sunday.

Nortjé is among the fastest bowlers in the game: he owns three of the IPL’s 10 all-time quickest deliveries, all three of them upwards of 150 kilometres and hour. To keep his membership of that club he needs to be able to trust his natural equipment to perform accordingly.

Nortjé missed the 2019 IPL because of a shoulder injury and, that same year, the World Cup with a hand problem. He has had to abide other absences forced by physical agonies. Even though he has recovered from his latest setback, could he still believe in a body that will turn 31 in November?

“There’s always that element of getting confident in the machine again,” Peterson said. “But Anrich is incredibly professional. He’s had injuries before, so he’s got some sort of formula on how to recover and what to do. The more I watch him bowl, the more he seems fine. He looks fit and healthy. He looks happy.”

What was his mental state? “He’s rock solid,” Peterson said. “He’s got no issues. Anrich is a low-maintenance cricketer. He does his work and gets on with it.”

This is good news for Delhi’s fans but also concerning. They will welcome the fact that Nortjé is fit and firing again. They will also wonder whether he will be good to go for them only six days after he is due to play on Sunday. Even if he is, he will go into cricket’s biggest tournament with precious little bowling behind him. 

But, as Phileas Fogg tells fellow members of the Reform Club rendered incredulous at his assertion that he can make it around the world in as few as 80 days, “A well-used minimum suffices for everything.”

The bigger issue is whether Nortjé becomes a father in time to reach India and perform, in Mullanpur on March 23, for a franchise who pay him USD785,000 — more than 10 times the value of his annual CSA contract — to bowl like the wind.

The still bigger issue is that he is contractually bound to, sooner rather than later, leave behind the woman he loves and their precious newborn and plunge into the madness of the IPL. All that money buys a lot of nappies, but not happiness. 

Cricbuzz 

Join my Mailchimp audience

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Questions for Quinton are others’ to answer

“It starts getting tough when you ask the boys for something and it just doesn’t happen.” – Quinton de Kock feels the cares of captaincy.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

TWO hours before the start of the third T20I between South Africa and Australia at Newlands on Wednesday, Steve Smith was in the nets; fidgeting and jerking and bobbing and weaving and itching and scratching his way through a session of throwdowns from Michael Hussey, whose arms gleamed with sunshine and sweat as he let fly with grooved grace. How Smith manages to middle the ball so often and with such pointed power despite looking as if he is facing grenades lobbed at him from the other side of a busy highway is a miracle of the modern game.

Simultaneously, two nets away, Robin Peterson provided the same service to Faf du Plessis, who seemed happier than he has been in weeks. Calm at the crease is at the core of Du Plessis’ game. The storm after that calm is a tautly controlled explosion of mind and muscle, and all over in an eyeblink. With Du Plessis’ every emphatic dismissal of the flung offerings into the roof of the net, Peterson smiled the smile he couldn’t smile while Brian Lara was taking 28 runs off one of his overs, the last of the day, at the Wanderers in December 2014. Watching Smith and Du Plessis separately from the distance of the boundary cannot capture the vast contrast between their approaches. Watching them at close quarters and separated only by the width of a net is as close to sensory overload as cricket should be allowed to get.  

Once Smith and Du Plessis were opposing captains, steering two of cricket’s greatest ships. Now they are opponents only, each looking to do their best for their team.

Smith got that right on Wednesday after coming in with 30 balls left in the innings. He faced half of them and hit an unbeaten 30 — all of 20 in a last over bowled by Anrich Nortjé, whose economy rate for the match boomed from 8.67 to 11.5 in the process — that took Australia to 193/5. Du Plessis’ boundaryless five off seven balls was far from the only failure in a gutless batting display that was put out of its misery at 15.3 overs with only 96 runs scored — the second time in three games that South Africa have been shot out for fewer than 100. The team who had fought back from nowhere to win at St George’s Park on Sunday had vanished. Instead South Africa were again the side who were utterly without fight at the Wanderers on Friday. Why had they chosen to field first, like they had in Johannesburg, when they were so much better at defending in Port Elizabeth? Did the fact that they had beaten England in the first ODI at Newlands despite batting under lights at a ground were that is famously difficult — only nine sides have won batting second in the 33 day/night ODIs there — influence their thinking too much? South Africa were able to bat for two hours before sunset against England and for less than half-an-hour against Australia. When darkness descended fully against England, South Africa had nine wickets in hand and needed only 94 more runs off the remaining 20 overs: an asking rate of 4.7. Against Australia, night arrived with the South Africans two down and requiring 153 off 15: 10.2 an over. Crucially, by then Quinton de Kock was out. Against England he batted into the 36th over for his 107. The comparisons only become more painful — at the Wanderers on Friday, De Kock was bowled by the third ball of the innings, a sniping outswinger from Mitchell Starc. At Newlands on Wednesday, De Kock was bowled by the fourth ball of the innings, another sniping outswinger from Starc.

But it would be unfair to pick on South Africa’s captain, even if it is his job to explain what had gone so wrong for his team for the second time in six days: “I’m not really sure because I’m not in the other batsmen’s minds.” Was that anger? No-one has scored more runs than De Kock in five of South Africa’s last six series across the formats. And they haven’t won any of them. Who could blame De Kock if he was growing resentful at doing more than his fair share of the batting and, despite that, the team having nothing to show for his efforts? Can the rest of you pull your weight already, dammit? But players aren’t supposed to ask those questions, and certainly not when they’re also the captain. Or are they? “It starts getting tough when you ask the boys for something and it just doesn’t happen,” De Kock said.

He had arrived for his press conference looking like a country song: his truck had been stolen, his dog had died, his wife had left him. Surely. Six minutes later he sauntered out, still sad-eyed. Aaron Finch swanned in fresh from a Broadway musical, sat down and immediately made himself useful. “Do you want that up a little bit, mate,” he asked a camera person in the scrum whose microphone on the top table had drooped. “Yeah. Thanks mate,” came the reply. Finch duly did the needful. Then he provided a sound check: “One, two, three, one, two three … hello?” He was even of service explaining the South Africans’ failure to launch: “Anytime you’re chasing 10s from the start, it’s so hard. When [the pitch is] going to get slower and slower and our spinners have been super accurate … whether you lose by one run or a hundred doesn’t make much difference. It’s all about risk and reward, and when that runrate goes up it’s so hard. You know you’ve got to try and preserve a couple of wickets but if you have two bad overs the rate goes to 15.”

Nice try, Mr Finch, but South Africa’s problems have leapt from the physical to the metaphysical. Why did dangerous players like Andile Phehlukwayo and Jon-Jon Smuts get only one game against the Aussies? Why did the consistently underwhelming Dwaine Pretorius play two? What has happened to South Africa’s technique and temperament against spin? They averaged 9.62 facing Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa, who took 13 of the 24 wickets that fell to Australia’s six bowlers. Where has the bowling and fielding discipline gone? After the first six overs of Australia’s innings on Wednesday, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortjé, Lungi Ngidi and Pretorius were all sailing at two runs per ball, not least because their support in the field reduced them to trying to catch water in a colander.

Deep in the darkness of Wednesday night at Newlands, long after the match had been won and lost, two starkly different figures, as players and as people, would have been united on one front: the relief that they no longer needed to explain the why and wherefore of poor performances by the teams they play for to themselves, the press or anyone else. 

Freed from that yoke, Smith and Du Plessis have better things to with their time. Like take to the nets hours before the start of a game. And bat as if their lives do not depend on it.

First published by Cricbuzz.

CSA miss own deadline on Cobras transformation issue

“I can’t comment on what goes on right at the top but I can certainly say there’s great talent in South Africa.” – Robin Peterson focuses on the positive.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

CRICKET South Africa (CSA) seem set to miss their self-imposed deadline for getting to the bottom of a transformation target transgression last month.

The Cobras’ XI for their first-class fixture against the Warriors at Newlands included seven black players — one more than the stipulated number.

But only two of them, fast bowlers Thando Ntini and Tladi Bokako, were black African — one fewer than the target.

“CSA has noted the submission by Western Cape Cricket [WCC] in lieu of a request for a deviation from the administrative conditions,” a CSA spokesperson said at the time.

But, according to Cobras coach Ashwell Prince, there was nothing “in lieu” about how he had approached the issue.

“I followed the protocol,” Prince told TMG Digital.

CSA also said they would “launch a further enquiry into this incident and will consider all the related and relevant information in order to arrive at a decision about the strength and the validity of the argument by WCC”, and that, “It is anticipated that the investigation may take up to 14 days.”

That was on October 29 — the 14 days expires on Tuesday.

Asked on Monday night whether CSA had reached a decision, a spokesperson said only, “We will announce the outcome once we have concluded the matter.”

Pressed for a better answer, he became defensive.

The Cobras squad contains four other black Africans — batters Aviwe Mgijima and Simon Khomari, and fast bowlers Akhona Mnyaka and Mthiwekhaya Nabe — while another, spinner Tsepo Ndwandwa, has played for them this season.

None were injured when the game against the Cobras started at Newlands on October 28.

Mgijima has scored just 39 runs in five first-class innings this season while Khomari made two and four in his only match of the campaign.

Mnyaka took 1/30 in the nine overs he bowled on his debut in January, his only first-class match to date.

Nabe also last played for the Cobras in January, and has taken 47 wickets in 31 first-class games at an average of 43.27.

Ndwandwa has claimed three wickets in the two first-class games he has played for the Cobras this season.

In cricket terms, none of those players are banging down the door for a place in the Cobras team.

Who might have been left out to make room for another black African is another consideration.

Five members of the top six who played average more than 30 this summer, with Kyle Verreynne topping the list at 70.66 and Matthew Kleinveldt weighing in at 56.00.

The only merely black — not black African — fast bowler in the side, Dane Paterson, has taken 18 wickets at 21.55 in four games.

The other three members of the team, Zubayr Hamza, George Linde and Dane Piedt, the captain, were all freshly back from South Africa’s poor Test series in India.

It was thus in the national interest that they played. 

And in the Cobras’ interest: before that match they had lost to the Lions and drawn with the Titans and Dolphins.

The game against the Warriors was also drawn, leaving the Cobras second from bottom in the standings.

There was, therefore, no good cricket case to be made for forcing an out-of-form player into a side that needed a win at the expense of someone better equipped for their role.

But, as the Springboks proved emphatically at the men’s World Cup in Japan, quotas can lead to triumph because they open eyes that were previously closed.

There’s a good argument to be made that the Boks would not have done as well as they did had teams not been forced to pick black players.

Decades of selection bias — consciously or not — robbed black players of their opportunities.

With their presence guaranteed, they could not be unfairly sidelined.

And, what do you know, they turned out to be among the best players South Africa had.

That Siya Kolisi, Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe merit their places is beyond question.

As is the likelihood that, without quotas, they would never have been given the chance to prove it.  

It’s a happy ending cricket is still chasing, and the dwindling confidence in CSA’s current leadership won’t bring it any closer. 

Perhaps that vital task should be left to people who know what they’ve doing, like Warriors coach Robin Peterson.

“I can’t comment on what goes on right at the top but I can certainly say there’s great talent in South Africa,” Peterson told TMG Digital during the now controversial Newlands match.

He is about 18 months from completing a Masters in sport directorship at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Peterson hasn’t yet decided what his dissertation topic will be, but he has an idea.

“Maybe I’ll do it on ethical transformation,” he said. “Is there such a thing as ethical transformation?

“I’m living in a situation I can write about, so why not.”

Given South Africa’s past and present, Peterson won’t want for research material.

“It’s very difficult to heal wounds, but if this is your only skill in life it’s very difficult to kill people’s dreams.

“You have to give them opportunities if they’re good enough to play.”

It seems a simple statement, but South Africans will know just how complex it is.

First published by TMG Digital. 

SA cricket fiddling with MSL while Test team burns

“I’m sure there are people in much higher positions than myself, at Proteas level and CSA level, who know exactly how they are going to go about improving the situation.” – Ashwell Prince keeps the faith.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

WITH South Africa’s men’s Test team at their lowest point and a series against England starting in just more than seven weeks, the responsible approach would be to divert all efforts into putting out the fire.

Instead, South Africa’s players will fiddle with the Mzansi Super League (MSL) for more than five weeks of that precious time.

Ashwell Prince, who placed a higher price on his wicket than most, and who consequently must have been more frustrated than most at South Africa’s flaccid batting in India last month, might have been able to help fix the problem if his Cobras were out there every week playing first-class cricket.

But that opportunity will be wasted because Prince will coach the Cape Town Blitz in the MSL, which starts on Friday.

“I don’t want to make comments about the Proteas and Test cricket at the moment,” Prince told a press conference in Cape Town on Monday. “I think we’re all here for the exciting second edition of the MSL.

“I’m sure there are people in much higher positions than myself, at Proteas level and CSA [Cricket South Africa] level, who know exactly how they are going to go about improving the situation.

“But at the moment I want to focus on the Blitz. We’ve got an exciting team with some exciting players, and we want to go out and enjoy that, and entertain.”

Except that figures who “know exactly how they are going to go about improving the situation” are thin on the ground.

Enoch Nkwe’s appointment as South Africa’s team director is interim — he was in place for the India tour only — and last week CSA suspended director of cricket Corrie van Zyl, another interim appointee, and sponsorship and sales head Clive Eksteen, the only members of their staff who have international playing experience.

Reality will resume after the MSL ends on December 16 — three days before the start of the only remaining round of franchise first-class games before the England series.

Not that there’s certainty that all or even most of the Test players will be in action in those games.

Only half of the 12 fit players who, in India, presided over South Africa’s worst performance in a series in 83 years turned out for their franchises in last week’s first-class matches.

Given all that, cricketminded South Africans will be desperate for a silver lining.

The closest their going to get to that is Hashim Amla’s appointment as the Blitz’ batting consultant, which was announced on Monday.

Like Prince, who faced 100 or more balls in 28 of his 104 Test innings and more than 200 in a dozen of them, suffered only one first-baller — six innings before he retired — and was dismissed in fewer than 10 deliveries just 12 times, Amla valued his wicket greatly.

He was there for at least 100 balls in 61 of 215 trips to the crease, had just 20 innings of fewer than 10 deliveries, and was also out first ball only once — in the first innings of his last Test, when an inswinger from Sri Lanka’s Vishwa Fernando nailed his middle stump.

Contrast that with the facts that 20 of the 60 wickets South Africa lost in India went down in fewer than 10 balls, that only nine times did a player face more than 100 deliveries in the series and only once more than 200 — Dean Elgar’s 160 in the first Test in Visakhapatnam came off 287 balls — and it isn’t difficult to see why Amla’s insight could be important.

That will, hopefully, be the case even though T20 batting is hardly about occupying the crease.

“There’s been a lot of comments lately in the media lately about the lack of our former national players’ involvement in the game,” Prince said when asked about Amla’s involvement.

“I approached him and he was very open to the idea. I don’t think he’s charging us a penny for his services, which is very rare these days.

“To have him share some of his knowledge and ideas would be invaluable.”

What might Blitz captain Quinton de Kock, who shared 125 partnerships with Amla for South Africa across all formats — 13 of them century stands — have learnt from cricket’s calmest player?

“Yoh! There’s a lot he’s taught me,” De Kock said. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career, and he’s been the one guy to be there — backing me and helping me.

“‘Hash’ will know what to do. He will see how he can get the best out of them, whether it’s from a mental or a technical point of view, or just hitting more balls.

“He’s really good at one-on-ones; individual chats rather than in team spaces.”

Warriors coach Robin Peterson thinks so, too. That’s why he enlisted Amla’s help for his team’s first-class match against the Cobras at Newlands last week.

“His manner and the way he talks about batting, he’d be the perfect guy to get the knowledge across,” Peterson said.

Here’s hoping Amla’s wisdom sticks somewhere in the minds of De Kock, Vernon Philander, Anrich Nortjé and George Linde, the Test players in the Blitz squad.

But there’s a catch. Amla will join the side only on November 25.

What’s he doing until then? Playing in something less relevant than even the MSL: the Abu Dhabi T10 League.

Suddenly, that lining is not so silver.

First published by TMG Digital.

Proteas too posh to play?

“You can’t only take, take, take. You’ve got to give, too.” – Robin Peterson on the conspicuous absence of top players from domestic cricket.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

NEWLANDS was naked in the wan sunshine that curdled in the cutting morning breeze.

The boundary was a humble rope, not an advertising-spangled, sponge-filled vinyl sausage. The fence beyond was a steel skeleton with nary a signboard in sight.

The stepped space where seats cradle the bums of Western Province Cricket Club members was all grim concrete, no plastic. And no members.

Emptiness was all around.

The metal monsters constructing the most controversial building in all of sport, apparently, on what used to be the B field sent regular shudders of dread rippling through the pressbox.

The cricket going on in the middle, in a match between the Cobras and the Warriors, took the edge off the bleak scene. Three Test players were in the field, two T20 internationals were at the crease, and an ODI umpire stood at one end.

Yet just about the only spectators were the bused-in schoolboys under The Oaks. Most of them played their own games. None, it seemed, were watching the match.

Welcome to a day in the life of domestic cricket.

It has, of course, long been thus. But the system seems more broken than ever in the wake of South Africa’s shambolic performance in their men’s Test series in India.

How could it be fixed? It’s a simple question with a myriad answers, most of them complex.

But without the buy-in of all levels and sectors of an unfortunately fractured game, these efforts will fail. What are cricket’s chances of unifying before irreparable damage is done? Or is it already too late?

Robin Peterson is never far from his smile, which stretched across his face as he said: “It’s not as bad as people think it is. The English guys who played 10 years ago will say the same thing, which is also the same thing Australians and West Indians said 10 years before that.” Peterson’s appointment as the Warriors’ interim coach is a rare positive in a time of tumult for the game in this country.

“I’d like to help young players in our system question why they do things and open their minds. I’m from Port Elizabeth. It’s my way of adding value and repaying [the Warriors] for giving me a start in cricket.”

More of that approach, particularly among still active players, could go a long way to helping the game pull out of its tailspin.

To illustrate how things could be, Peterson remembered that eight of Australia’s XI who featured in his last ODI, at the SCG in November 2014, played in the round of Sheffield Shield matches that started two days later.

“Two days after an ODI series of five games, of high intensity cricket, that was crammed into 10 days …

“I know there’s more demands on our guys now, but they’ve still got to play. They mustn’t forget that they got there through this system. It’s given them the opportunity to play for South Africa.

“You can’t only take, take, take. You’ve got to give, too. I’d like to see them do that better than they have.”

Faf du Plessis’ sincerity did him no favours when, on his return from India, he said: “I don’t know a lot about domestic structures because I don’t spend a lot of time in domestic structures.”

The Titans have played 71 first-class matches since Du Plessis made his Test debut in November 2012. He has featured in only two of them. An analysis of his international workload shows he could have played 20 more first-class games for his franchise.

It wouldn’t have been easy, but it could have been done. Now, as South African cricket eyes an uncertain future, it must be done.

First published by the Sunday Times.

Peterson appointment brightens dark day

With many products of South African cricket taking their first ticket outta here, it will ease minds that Peterson has chosen to stay.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THE best news South African cricket has had since Faf du Plessis lost the toss in Visakhapatnam three weeks ago broke in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday.

Robin Peterson, a son of that storied soil, has been named interim coach of the Warriors’ men’s team.

And as Eric Simons’ assistant with the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants in the Mzansi Super League. 

That should help take the edge off the awful truth cricketminded South Africans woke up to on Tuesday: the innings defeat Du Plessis’ team suffered against India in the third men’s Test in Ranchi sealed the worst performance by South Africa since readmission.

It’s not that they lost the series 3-0, it’s that they went down by in innings in consecutive matches for the first time since 1936.

Former South Africa left-arm spinner Peterson, 40, is as Eastern Cape at it gets, having been born in Port Elizabeth, attended Alexander Road High, and played for Eastern Province and the Warriors.

What with many products of the game in this country taking their first ticket outta here — Peterson fills the vacancy left by Rivash Gobind, who is off the Afghanistan as Lance Klusener’s assistant — it will ease minds that Peterson has chosen to stay.

“It’s especially a privilege being a PE boy and having spent the best part of my career playing for the Warriors and now getting the opportunity to help develop and guide the team,” a Warriors release quoted Peterson as saying. 

“This is a huge thrill. They have the right mix of youth, experience and talent to do something special as a collective and push for silverware.”

That last happened in 2017-18, when the Eastern Capers shared the One-Day Cup with the Dolphins.

Peterson, 40, who played 14 Tests and 77 one-day internationals, would seem ably equipped to add to the trophy cabinet.

He has been a technical consultant with South Africa’s under-19 men’s team in 2017, and has worked with the national academy and South Africa A.

Peterson has coached the Barbados Tridents and the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the Caribbean Premier League for the past two years, as well as the Northern Warriors in the inaugural T10 League in the United Arab Emirates last year.

He has been an assistant coach with the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.

“All this experience within the field of coaching at the professional level makes Peterson a highly suitable selection to lead the Warriors during this new season,” the release quoted Cricket Eastern Cape chief executive Mark Williams as saying.

Peterson will be back in a Warriors tracksuit on Monday for a four-day match against the Cobras at Newlands.

So far this season the Warriors have lost to the Knights and beaten the Lions.

First published by TMG Digital.

SA spinners in pole position to overcome English conditions at World Cup

At the last World Cup in England, spinners were almost as scarce as uncalled legside wides on the lists of the top 10 bowlers.

TMG Digital

TELFORD VICE in London

SPINNERS in danger of being selected for next year’s World Cup in England might want to look for something else to do for those few weeks, or pull a hamstring. The conditions will enlarge the already unfair advantage over bowlers that batters have been gifted by wrong-headed playing regulations, and the slow poisoners seem set to be left with the important but thankless task of keeping it tight while the seamers get on with the real job. 

At the last World Cup in England, in 1999, spinners were almost as scarce as uncalled legside wides on the lists of the top 10 bowlers.

They featured twice among the wicket-takers, once in the averages of bowlers who had sent down at least 20 overs, twice in the best bowling performances, once in the economy rate stakes, and not at all when it came to ranking strike rates.

And those spinners were either Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne or Saqlain Mushtaq — the first, second and 66th highest wicket-takers in Test cricket with 1 716 scalps between them, or almost as many as the number of men who have taken at least one wicket in the format: 1 757.

Fast forward to the 2011 World Cup, played on the slow, turning pitches of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Suddenly spin was sexy.

Half the top 10 wicket-takers were spinners, along with four each in the averages, best bowling and strike rate pecking orders. Eight of the 10 bowlers with the best strikes rates, and who had a minimum of 20 overs, were spinners.

Left-arm spinner Robin Peterson played only one match in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, two in the next edition of the event in the Caribbean, and seven in 2011 — when he was South Africa’s top wicket-taker with 15, followed one behind by leg spinner Imran Tahir.

It will be eight years on from all that when the 2019 World Cup starts with a game between England and South Africa at the Oval on May 30, and a full 20 years since the tournament was last staged in England.

Some things change: in 1999 there were no power plays and none of the massive influence T20 has and is having on the 50-over game. But other things, like the weather — and so the conditions — stay the same.

More or less. Closer to the truth is that England hasn’t been affected significantly enough by climate change in those 20 years to alter the way cricket is played there.  

“The weather in England plays a big role,” Claude Henderson said on Wednesday, a day before leaving his home in Leicester to return to his position as South Africa’s spin consultant.

“If it’s like it is now,” he said, confirming that the midlands were just as bleak and wintery as London, and four degrees colder than the capital’s 12 degrees, “it’s very hard for a spinner to be a strike bowler.

“But if the sun comes out and bakes the wickets, they take more turn.”

That should be the case seven months from now, when the tournament will unfold in the full bloom of an English summer.

Henderson knows of whence he speaks, having played 127 first-class matches and 189 white-ball games for Leicestershire along with his 115 and 205 caps, respectively, for Western Province, Boland and the Cobras.

He agreed that South Africa’s spinners, who grow up coming to terms with unhelpful pitches and untrusting captains, would be better equipped next year than those from Asia, who are accustomed to the luxury of surfaces that do half the bowling for them.    

And spinners, whoever they are and wherever they’re from, are nothing if not dedicated students of the game and readily tailor their bowling for whatever the situation demands.

So much so that Henderson, a fine example of the above, risked contradicting his own weather analysis: “Our spinners are so skilled up now that they are far more capable of striking whatever the conditions.

“Imran Tahir’s slider, for instance, takes wickets on all kinds of pitches.”

Bottomless positivity is another Henderson traits. He had enough of the precious stuff to play seven Tests and four one-day internationals — no mean feat for a left-arm spinner who was far more about flight, discipline and tirelessness than ripping turn and aggression. 

If some of that rubs off on South Africa’s spinners at the 2019 World Cup, their thoughts won’t turn to faking hamstring injuries.