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When South Africa were reintroduced into international cricket in 1991, Graeme Smith
was 10 years old. He was too young to understand the changes that were
taking place in the society around him and, as part of the privileged
few, he would not be able to see the effect of those changes until years
later. Years such as 2003 when he took over as captain and 2012 when
South Africa are about to benefit from those changes.
"We've been blessed that someone has harnessed the talent and brought it
all together," Smith said at Lord's, when talking about the strength of
the current South African side. "We are reaping the rewards now of a
lot of hard work in the early days. There would have been a lot
different decisions to get to this point where we are now."
South African cricket, in its most whole form, has only just turned 21.
Before that, the majority of the country was excluded from playing the
game at the top level so the true measure of the country's sporting
strength could not be properly attained. For every Graeme Pollock, Mike
Proctor and Garth le Roux, no-one knows how many other talented batsmen,
allrounders and bowlers either played in competitions like the Hawa
Bowl, from which they could progress no further, or gave up.
As much as South Africa will never know what they lost in terms of
talent, they will also not know how good they could have been as a team.
The 20 years of isolation meant that the talents of a generation were
lost. Had South Africa competed then, they may have been a match for the
West Indies and England or gone through the teething problems Australia
did in the 1980s, as something to build on for the future.
They would also have been able to keep up with international cricketing
trends, which could have made them even stronger. Jimmy Cook remembered
that he often learned new things on the county circuit which he then
took back to South Africa and implemented at Transvaal. Having more
exposure to the world game is something he believed would have made
South Africa a better side on readmission.
When unity was reached and South Africa allowed to play again, they had
to start from a different place to any of their competitors. Not only
were they somewhat out of touch with the times but they also had to
concentrate on inclusion for all South Africans. At first, there was
almost no emphasis on reintegration, then there was an official quota
system and now, sufficient work has been done to give players of colour a
real chance.
| "The stability that was created around the team a few years ago has played a part in where we are today. There has been some good cricketing decisions and appointments." Graeme Smith on how South Africa have got things right behind the scenes | |||
To say that enough has been done, would be too generous. There are still
large parts of the Eastern Cape, black African cricket's stronghold,
the Cape Flats, where players like Vernon Philander are bred and areas
in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Johannesburg where there are sizeable Indian
communities, that are without facilities and untapped.
Those problems affect levels of cricket lower down, though the top has
developed layer upon layer of strength and South Africa has done more
than just catch up with the rest of the cricketing world: it has out-run
almost all of them. It is backed by stable team management and a
prospering national board, even as it stumbles through a two-year long
bonus scandal, its flagship product, the national team, have been
unaffected. It could be even be argued that the opposite is true.
In two decades, they have done what other teams may have needed many
more years to achieve. They have gone from beginnings that were
shattered to a building phase that seemed to stagnate, especially in the
mid-90s and early 2000s, to the brink of world No.1.
Smith believes that because they did not skip any of the steps on the
ladder to the top, they will be in a position to capitalise now. "The
important thing in South African cricket was always going to be
consistency. With everything that was happening in the initial stages -
growth, putting systems in place, academies, convenors of selectors,
different cricket boards - there was a process of growth that needed to
take place. You needed to go through that in South African sport to get
where we are today."
Stable growth is what saw South Africa build up a record of not losing a
Test series away from home in six years. But it needed a jolt to push
them up a level and that came with the appointment of the new coaching
staff in June last year. Gary Kirsten, Allan Donald, Russell Domingo and
their many assistants have injected the one missing element into the
squad - creativity. Under them South Africa have gone from solid to
spectacular and seem ready to add successful to that list.
"The stability that was created around the team a few years ago has
played a part in where we are today. There has been some good cricketing
decisions and appointments. To have the type of management team we have
around us has probably been the best appointment that we could have
hoped for," Smith said.
He did not acknowledge his own contribution but it is one that cannot be
ignored. Smith has played a massive role in blending consistency and
innovation, something only a leader who is secure and sufficiently
experienced can do. When he takes the field at Lord's, he will break
Allan Border's record for most Tests as captain, an achievement he holds
dear.
"It's important for me to say that I am extremely proud to have been
able to last as long in the job as I have," he said. "I definitely don't
see myself in the echelons of an Allan Border or Clive Lloyd or Steve
Waugh or Mike Atherton or whoever. I've always tried to be the best I
can be and I'm blessed to be given the opportunity from a 22-year old to
have grown into the type of man and captain that I am today and
hopefully we can achieve some special things."
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo's South Africa correspondent
Feeds: Firdose Moonda
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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