In our series "My Favourite Cricketer" we've invited the best cricket writers and bloggers to divulge why certain cricketers emerge as their favourites. This week, Purna Hassan of Cricket Minded and @cricketminded takes the stand
I
fell in love with cricket because of Hansie Cronje and the team he
captained. My Dad introduced me to cricket and as he was an avid
fan of India, I followed his passion. It was only at age eleven
when began to grasp the concepts of the game and realized cricket's
meaning differs between countries.
Courtesy: wikipedia.org |
In
India, it was religion bordering on fanatic levels. In West Indies,
cricket was an aura that had stunned the world. In Australia, it
evoked a chase between a wild animal and its prey. In South Africa,
it was an avenue for a country to step up and etch their place on the
map. In the 1997-1998
Test match between South Africa and India, Allan Donald and Shaun
Pollock captured my attention, Jonty Rhodes made me clap rowdily and
Hansie Cronje – he simply demanded my respect.
He
wasn’t as flamboyant as a batsman could be. In fact, his batting
numbers are far below what he should have achieved. But I have no
complaints. Hansie was too busy being a leader, instilling faith in
players that had been overlooked for years because of the unfortunate
state of their country. Hansie was too busy being there.
I
am trying here to express what he represented, for his team and his
country. I'm not South African, but do come from a country that has
always struggled to rectify the overblown, deeply concentrated
negative images displayed for so long in the media. Hansie was put
in charge of such a team at the tender age of 24; despite relative
youth, he never showed any greenness. Hansie feared no one, or if he
did, I never saw it. His confidence, ego and intensity were, in my
opinion, exactly what the new era Proteas needed. After all, this
team had defend every single outburst (racial or otherwise) which
would have been termed ‘part of the game’ for others. The world
was watching and Hansie and co. had to prove that South Africans were
capable of much more than just apartheid.
His
greatest power lay in the knowledge that he was there to play
cricket. His love for the game resonated in his eyes and his smiles.
He could have a good time on the pitch even when times were hard.
He was a prankster and I fondly remember his banter with Jonty and
the then young Jacques Kallis (ed:
I could have sworn Jacques Kallis was born at age 32 with bat in
hand).
Allan
Donald was his go-to man, Pollock the newcomer of distinguished
lineage. Herschelle
Gibbs marked the role of restless youngster to perfection and
Dave Richardson his reliable old sage. Even as a young man, Cronje
instinctively knew how to handle, utilise and shuffle his pack. I
can’t remember a single instance where his decisions on the field
were questioned by his team-mates; when those choices were dubious or
cost them the game, Hansie was the first to admit his mistakes and
the quickest to learn from them (alas, apart from the choking). He
was in every sense a leader.
It
was little wonder that South Africa quickly rose to the top of the
international game. Talents like Gibbs, Boucher and Ntini flourished
from the nutrition provided by Hansie and coach
Bob Woolmer. The results began to evolve as they won the Asia
Cup – their only ICC trophy – in Dhaka. I remember as he held
the trophy; I was watching with tears in my eyes. All he said was
‘It’s heavy, but I don’t want to put it down’.
In
the 1999
World Cup, South Africa were the hot favourites. It was there
that I saw the first signs of my captain's weakness. Hansie took the
field with
an ear-piece to communicate with Woolmer, a move he later paid
for. South Africa’s previously impressive top order began to rely
more on Lance
Klusener's WMD finishes. In the excitement and amid a remarkable
run of “Zulu” form, the otherwise perceptive Hansie Cronje let
his team play; he should have united the team and reminded them of
their duties.
Personally,
I loved it. Klusener is and will always be my 1999 World Cup hero,
but in there is no way Allan Donald should have been the man at the
other end with Zulu when the likes of Kirsten, Gibbs, Cullinan,
Kallis, Cronje and even Pollock came before. I thought the 1999
World Cup semi-final was the first and last time the Proteas
would break my heart.
And
then came Cronje-gate.
Image courtesy: wn.com |
I
distinctly remember the day Hansie
confessed his crimes. I was leaving for a vacation and woke up
early to start my travels. I picked up the newspaper – it's first
page featured a huge picture of Hansie crying and the headline
“Match-fixing scandal rocks the Cricket world”. To say I was
devastated is an understatement. Till then, I had vehemently defended
Cronje, strongly believing the allegations to be a set-up. Anyone
and everyone who loves cricket was shattered by the revelation but
for me it was more personal: it was the ultimate and immutable demise
of my hero.
I
was disgusted that he had persuaded team-mates to join him and
shocked by the tremendous flaw that the match-fixing scandals
revealed in a man I respected. It pained me to see what he had
reduced his cricket to, to what he had reduced himself. Those are
the only emotions I recall from those days – betrayal and an
overwhelming sadness. Even still I couldn’t bring myself to hate
him, rather I was grateful when he stepped aside and accepted his
bans with grace. I couldn't bear to see him stoop lower.
Cronje
broke my heart a third time with
his untimely death. It's indicative of the man that sometimes I
feel he's still alive, on an island and living it up. In these
times, he's grinning from ear to ear as only Hansie can.
It's
probably pretty plain that I forgave him quickly. His incredible
betrayal could not taint the memories he had given me over the years
and neither could it stain his leadership and passion for the game.
Hansie Cronje may have changed cricket forever with his misguided
activities, but for me it doesn't detract at all from the confidence
he provoked in the Proteas and, by extension, his gift to the cricket
world.
A great read on Cronje here - a Guardian cricket article from 2003 on the first anniversary of his death:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2003/aug/03/cricket.features