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South Africa can be a threat

Nandita Sridhar

The visitors’ mood conveys a sense of preparedness

— Photo: R. Ragu

MAINSTAY: Jacques Kallis, seen at a practice session on Sunday, feels the short visit back home after the Bangladesh tour has charged up the squad.

Chennai: The South African team manages consistency with an understated confidence. Not for them the audacity of the Aussies, or the genetic self-depreciation of the English.

Graeme Smith and his squad assembled on Sunday for South Africa’s first practice session ahead of the first Test against India. The mood, as one expects in professional sport, conveyed a sense of preparedness. There was reasonable self-assurance, and little more.

The squad’s batting mainstay Jacques Kallis explained the importance of the decision to head home after the Bangladesh series. “Getting a break at home, even if it was for two days, really helped us re-charge our batteries,” he said.

Rollercoaster

India has been an eventful venue for the visitors. South Africa has won, lost, ended streaks, and found its most charismatic captain exposed here. India has lent shape to a squad that often finds its past and big-stage failures difficult tags to drop.

The story of South African cricket has been one of denial. Isolation in the wake of apartheid robbed cricket of its two geniuses — Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards. World Cup chances have been lost by misfortune and an economy of foresight, and lately, selection policies have compromised skill for numbers.

South Africa’s period of isolation ended when India was the first side to host it for an ODI series in 1991-92. The visitors were given a rapturous welcome through the course of the matches.

Clive Rice’s concession to emotion was the unforgettable quote to Wisden, which said, “I know how Neil Armstrong felt when he stood on the moon.”

Fearsome Donald

As a gesture of release, after years of skills suppressed, they uncorked Allan Donald. Donald was quick, and with a certain rawness that made him fearsome.

The South Africans arrived in whites for their first Test tour in the 96-97 season. The side’s first and last brush with romance ended with the disintegration of that squad. Donald, Shaun Pollock, Jonty Rhodes, Lance Klusener and skipper Hansie Cronje possessed clarity of purpose that did not compromise on excitement.

Two of the venues that will feature in this series — Ahmedabad and Kanpur — tried their utmost, back then, to curtail self-expression. Cricket was subsidised. The host prevailed.

The South Africans could be discredited with being the force that pushed Indian cricket to its lowest. Nearly a decade prior to its newfound sense of self, Indian cricket’s self esteem hinged on offsetting dismal overseas records with brilliance at home. In the 1999 series, India’s batting was paralysed by the visiting bowling attack. The series loss was India’s first at home in 13 years.

The ODI series that followed ended in an Indian win, but it was the dark days thereafter, better known as ‘Hansiegate’ that remain in memory. In comparison, the Test series in 2004-05 was less eventful.

The South African side for this series has notched up wins over Pakistan and Bangladesh with minimal fuss and the odd hiccup.

The side doesn’t intimidate, but with a successful opening combination in Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie, an anchor in Kallis and an in-form pacer in Dale Steyn, it can threaten.

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