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RIP Clive Rice

Marius

International Debutant
Clive Rice dies

2015-07-28 09:45

Cape Town - Former South African cricket captain Clive Rice passed away in hospital on Tuesday morning.

Rice, 66, had been suffering from a brain tumour in recent times.

He visited India earlier this year, receiving robotic radiation treatment for a cancer-related brain tumour at Bangalore’s Health Care Global Hospital.

The treatment seemingly went well, but Rice lost his battle on Tuesday.

Rice's career coincided directly with South Africa's sporting isolation, and his international experience was limited to his post-prime days.

He played three One Day Internationals for South Africa following the country's return from sporting isolation - against India in 1991.

Mere months later he was controversially left out of the squads for the one-off Test against the West Indies and the 1992 Cricket World Cup.
Clive Rice dies | Sport24

Condolences to his family and friends.

Controversial guy, but may have been the best all-rounder to have never played a Test match. Also did a lot for Nottinghamshire in the 1980s.
 

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Farewell, Rice, may you have a sweet afterlife. You will be remembered forever in CW threads.
 

SeamUp

International Coach
Brilliant article on his career : Clive Rice: An all-rounder in the league of Garry Sobers, Imran Khan and Ian Botham - Latest Cricket News, Articles & Videos at CricketCountry.com


Cricinfo profile : Clive Rice | South Africa Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo

If Clive Rice's timing served him well through a first-class career that embraced four decades, it let him down badly in international terms. Rice made his first-class debut in 1969, a year before South Africa's last Test series prior to isolation. Although he captained his country on their three-ODI comeback tour of India in 1991, just months later he was deemed, at 42, to be too old to take South Africa to the 1992 World Cup.


A record containing just three one-day internationals suggests a moderate cricketer, but Rice was far from that. Through the 1970s and 80s, for Transvaal and Nottinghamshire, he was one of the game's leading allrounders - a punishing right-handed batsman with one of the most savage cuts in cricket, a seamer capable of genuine pace through the 1970s and a captain as hard-headed as any in the business. He attracted the attention of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket - in itself recognition of his abilities - and was an automatic choice for the South African teams against the rebel tourists of the 1980s. He was also the epitome of the modern professional cricketer, quick to recognise the financial opportunities that began to arise in the game.

Rice was at the centre of one of South African cricket's silliest controversies when he posed naked except for a strategically-placed (and pointedly-named) "Jumbo" bat. It was also almost impossible to come across a photograph of him in his heyday without an "Avis" cap covering a receding hairline. Rice was the driving force behind the Transvaal "Mean Machine" in the 1970s and 80s, similarly urging Nottinghamshire to success during the same period. Sadly, he was discarded by both South Africa and Transvaal at the end of his career, eventually moving to Natal where, with Malcolm Marshall, he helped shape the formidable talents of Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and Jonty Rhodes. He subsequently returned to Trent Bridge as cricket manager.
Clive Rice looks back at his career | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Mike Procter on Rice

'He always gave his best shot. If given the opportunity at Test level, he would have been considered one of the best allrounders in history,' Bacher recalled.
South Africa has produced the best allrounders - Ali Bacher | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Mark Nicholas re-calls SA's superstars of 76 : Mark Nicholas: South Africa's superstars of '76 | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Procter at eight, though, Rice at seven to mop up in case of a tumble. Rice played uncompromising cricket - sort of a Steve Waugh, but if not as good a batsman, a better and certainly faster bowler. He wound up opponents and the opposition spectators in a way that condensed each match into fight-club intensity. With a vicious, skidding bouncer and a defiant, if not always pretty, manner of batsmanship, Rice did as much for Transvaal and Nottinghamshire as Procter did for Gloucestershire, Natal and Rhodesia. Which is saying something.
 
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flibbertyjibber

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RIP Very sad news. One of the best players I ever saw play county cricket and that was at the end of his career so god knows how good he was at his peak.
 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Very sad news - he was a decent bowler, and an absolutely top class batsman - if he'd played for Clive Rice rather than the team he'd have an average north of 60
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Vale.

Sadly I didn't see too much of him as a player what with RSA's isolation and his CC career ending before Sky showed domestic stuff in bulk.

His figures suggest an all- rounder of the first rank though. Pity he didn't take the Queen's shilling like so many of his confreres did.
 

SeamUp

International Coach
At 36 was beyond his best but so were a few on the Rebel Tours but at 41:30 you can see how he loved to compete & had this confrontation with Rackerman who returned it when he batted.

Then from 50 mins you can see SA have to bowl Australia out for victory to seal the series 1-0. Rice completes his hattrick from the first innings & Garth Le Roux gets a hattrick.

This was uncompromising test cricket standard.

 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Vale.

Sadly I didn't see too much of him as a player what with RSA's isolation and his CC career ending before Sky showed domestic stuff in bulk.

His figures suggest an all- rounder of the first rank though. Pity he didn't take the Queen's shilling like so many of his confreres did.
England under Rice's captaincy in the 1980's would have been an interesting prospect. A tough bugger who didn't take any crap from anyone was probably what we needed.

His feats at Notts, along with Hadlee of course, were the stuff of legend. Apparently before he joined their only aim was to finish above Derbyshire in the CC. Even allowing for the presence of the two overseas superstars, he did so much to raise the game of the remainder of the side. A month or so back there was a thread on CW where we were invited to put together a post WW2 side for each of the counties. Perhaps my biggest tribute to Rice is that, given the two foreigners rule that I preferred, Rice's impact was such that he'd get in the side ahead of Sobers, who had played at Trent Bridge a decade or so previously.
 

SeamUp

International Coach
Vale.

Sadly I didn't see too much of him as a player what with RSA's isolation and his CC career ending before Sky showed domestic stuff in bulk.

His figures suggest an all- rounder of the first rank though. Pity he didn't take the Queen's shilling like so many of his confreres did.
You can at least thank him for the KP years. :thumbs_up

Huge factor in getting him to Notts.
 

SeamUp

International Coach
Also quite big at the time was this all-rounder competition they did mid 80's

By the mid-80, Rice was a towering figure on the county grounds, and recognised as someone who could be classed in the same elite group of all-rounders as the fantastic four of Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee. In the mid-80s, four separate single wicket tournaments were played featuring the five, in which each man batted against the other four. Rice won three of these competitions, and Imran the other.
 

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