South Africa's greatest ever

My love affair with cricket started on July 28, 1965. I remember the day as though it was yesterday - dry, warm and sunny (wasn't every day just perfect when you were a child?) and I cannot say that I was particularly enthusiastic about what was in store for me.

The school holidays, as far as I was concerned, were for one purpose only - fishing, and I was none too pleased when my father said "We are going to Canterbury to watch a cricket match."

The South Africans were in town for a three day match against Kent - only the day before, they had narrowly failed to press home a victory against England at Lord's in a tense affair which had swung first one way then the other, but of course I knew little of such matters. Cricket is seldom played on the Prince of Wales pier, Dover.

I would be lying if I claimed any recollection of the journey along the A2 in what was laughingly described as a 'family saloon car' - suffice to say that it would have been cramped and uncomfortable yet mercifully short. I do recall my first view of the St Lawrence Cricket Ground though - very green with (how strange) an enormous tree within the area of play.

Some of the Kent names sounded familiar - Colin Cowdrey in particular - my father always had a glimmer in his eye when he spoke of the great man in hushed, almost reverent tones as though saying his name out loud or out of place was somehow sacrilegious.

Denness, Luckhurst, Underwood, Knott - all were yet to make their mark as far as the England selectors were concerned yet the match programme extolled the virtues of each as though they were stars in the making.

What of the Springboks? The Pollock brothers rang a bell, although this may have had more to do with the type of fish known to inhabit reefs and rocky areas - and the piles close to piers. Colin Bland - I saw brief television coverage of him giving an athletic demonstration of cover fielding which basically consisted of someone throwing cricket balls in his general direction and Bland would swoop, throw and hit a single stump time after time.

If I had been able to avoid the trip, would I have ever so much as played the game? I don't know, but what I DO know is that the experience changed me for life.

The first day saw South Africa bat first, and the crowd became terribly excited when two were winkled out with the total on just 40. For the next four hours, Canterbury was witness to an innings of such sumptuous stroke-play, a master-class even by Graeme Pollock, just 21 years of age, that I was instantly hooked (for want of a better word).

A declaration an hour or more before the close came immediately following yet another Pollock boundary which took him past 200 - plenty of time for Pollock Senior to mar my father's day still further by cleaning up Cowdrey for a couple. Suffice to say, I was the instigator of the outing the next day to see Kent finally dismissed for 74 before lunch and then to be bowled out again for 144 before the close.

The following week, we went to my grandmother's house in Derbyshire for a few days - less than 20 miles from Trent Bridge, the venue for the second test match. I surprised myself when I suggested that further investigation of this latest fad was required. Day one belonged most definitely to me - Graeme Pollock scored yet another scintillating hundred - but the old man held sway on the Friday as Cowdrey cut and drove his own way to three figures.

Thus began my love affair with cricket in general and the nurturing of a soft spot for the Proteas in particular. As I write this line NOW, South Africa are 342-1 in the first innings against England at Edgbaston in 2003. Herschelle Gibbs has just departed, Graeme Smith looks as though he would be happy to be batting at this time tomorrow and the English are on the rack - familiar territory indeed.

Strolling back down memory lane, it would be almost three decades before the abhorrent political system in South Africa was dismantled and the sides were to meet again - but what of the interim period?

Whatever the rights and wrongs, South Africa played two series against Australia, both at home, before their ultimate exile which remained in place until April 1992 and the historic match against the West Indies at the Kensington Oval, Barbados where Ambrose and Walsh welcomed them back to the fold.

The South African 'Class of 70' was, in my mind, one of the greatest collections of cricketers to ever be assembled in one place at one time. The Australian side which included Lawry, Redpath, Stackpole, Ian Chappell, Walters, Taber, Gleeson and McKenzie was as good as anything else in the world at the time. They weren't just beaten - they were absolutely thrashed in every test match.

The margins tell only part of the story :
Cape Town - 170 runs
Durban - Innings and 129 runs
Johannesburg - 307 runs
Port Elizabeth - 323 runs.

It was the manner, the style in which Ali Bacher's side triumphed - attractive, attacking cricket - which endeared them to me and made their 22-year exile so painful, yet so necessary. Some of the players in that South African side rank amongst the very best of the 20th century. The question I ask is a simple one - did politics rob the world of the greatest test side of them all?

Barry Richards
One of the greatest batsmen of the last century, he played just four times for his country - all in the 1970 series - registering two hundreds and two fifties. Quick, brave and with an uncanny ability to be in position so early as to be almost waiting for the ball where HE wanted it, Gloucestershire, Hampshire and South Australia were all the better for his mighty presence at the top of the order.

Trevor Goddard
His career almost over, Trevor bowed out from first-class cricket after the Australia series. A more than useful all-rounder, he opened the batting in the first three games before giving way to Eddie Barlow for the fourth test. He wasn't a success with the bat but still found the time to pick up 9 wickets with his unerringly accurate left arm medium pace. His career economy rate of 1.64 runs conceded per over is simply staggering.

Ali Bacher
The jury will remain out for ever on Aron 'Ali' Bacher as far as his test career was concerned - just half a dozen fifties in a twelve tests. It is possible that his tenure on the captaincy might have been an early casualty should circumstances have been different, for waiting in the wings was the fearsome Mike Procter.

Graeme Pollock
Sir Donald Bradman was never able to make up his mind regarding the greatest leftie in cricket history - Sobers or Pollock? Many nowadays would add Brian Lara in the same bracket and I, for one, would not argue the point for too long. Pollock at 21 was simply breathtaking. At 26, in the 1970 series against Australia, he was very much in his prime. Just one century in the series, but it was the small matter of 274.

Eddie Barlow
Eddie was South Africa's version of Ian Botham, although he made his runs in an altogether different manner. Gritty, determined, he was a stubborn batsman at the top of the order and a pretty useful medium pacer. His two hundreds, eleven wickets and eight slip catches in 1970 are but a small part of what he added to the side. He became an inspirational leader to Derbyshire in the 1970's and remains a legend in the game.

Lee Irvine
Brian Lee Irvine played just the four tests for South Africa, hitting a century and a couple of fifties in averaging over fifty. A hard-hitting player, he had an eye for the maximums, swatting half a dozen sixes in the series. Later in his career, he made a name for himself as a wicket-keeper although he never took the gloves in his all-too-brief test career.

Mike Procter
Procter with the bat was simply awesome, although a high score of just 48 in test cricket does him no justice whatsoever. He was 23 in 1970, made useful twenties and thirties every time he went out to bat in the series but it was with the ball he made his mark. 26 wickets at just 13 runs apiece brought his aggregate to 41 in just seven games. Surely, he would have been the quickest to 50 in a test career had circumstances not dictated otherwise - and remember, they all came against Australia. His record for Gloucestershire is legendary - no-one who saw his famous hat-trick of leg-befores whilst bowling around the wicket will ever forget it. One of the greatest all-rounders in the history of the game.

Denis Lindsay
Shared the wicket-keeping duties with Dennis Gamsy during the series, although when he first broke into the side it was as a specialist middle-order batsman. Lindsay became a class wicket-keeper batsman, scorer of three test match hundreds and with an average approaching 40 with the bat at the highest level.

Peter Pollock
A genuinely hostile fast bowler, Peter Pollock on his day was as good as they come. In the 1970 series, although the raw pace of his youth was no longer the major part of his arsenal, he could still be witheringly quick. He was, however, a bowler with uncanny control and his 15 wickets at an average of 17 came during spells where he conceded little more than two runs an over. His career record of 116 wickets at 24 is up there with the best. In addition, he was a more than useful late-order batsman, capable of wielding the long handle as well as playing with restraint as circumstances dictated.

Graeme Chevalier
Used as the token spinner in one game only, slow left armer Graeme picked up match figures of 5-100 in his only appearance at the highest level. He failed to trouble the scorers with the bat - nothing unusual as a first-class career average under 5 reveals.

Tiger Lance
Herbert Roy Lance was a useful all-rounder who never truly made the transition into test cricket. Never a more than temporary fixture in the team, his batting average of 28 despite seven half-centuries in just 13 appearances demonstrate a frailty early on in his innings.

John Traicos
John's story is remarkable, but his cricket wasn't - at least, not at the highest level. Born in Egypt, off-spinner Traicos played three games in the 1970 series but was sparingly used. He is, I believe, the only direct playing link from the great South African side of 1970 to that of the present day. In October 1992, at the age of 45, he played in the inaugural Zimbabwe test side in Harare against India. Opening the batting for Zimbabwe that day was Grant Flower who played in the 2003 NatWest Series against South Africa.

Pat Trimborn
Just the one game in the series for Pat Trimborn, a lively medium pacer who gave little away. His four victims included Doug Walters, Ian Chappell and Paul Sheahan, but he was never more than a fringe player. A career average of 22 with the ball in a 15 year career indicate his capabilities.

Kelly Seymour
Off-spinner Seymour played a solitary game in the series, seven tests in all and only 38 first class games in a ten year career.

Dennis Gamsy
Gamsy kept wicket in the first two games of the series, but gave way to Denis Lindsay for the last two games. A fine keeper, he played in an era when the likes of John Waite and Dennis Lindsay had prior claim on the gloves at the highest level.

The side never had the chance to play against Pakistan, India or the West Indies because of the horror which was apartheid, but they were more than a match for England or Australia.

The alienation of South African cricket did not start with John Vorster's disgraceful outburst against the selection of Basil D'Oliveira - as far as half of the world's cricketing nations were concerned, it had always been there, and rightly so. Some say that sport and politics do not mix, but how can they ever be separated? Sport IS politics - because both are part of life itself and the world is better - or worse - for it.

Still, I cannot help but wonder. What would the Proteas of 1970 have done with Holding, Richards, Marshall and the like?


Posted by Eddie