As a South African, our cricket rivalry with Australia is not rooted in our differences but in how we are so similar.
What are the reasons why South African cricket enthusiasts are at odds with Australia?Are the stadiums of great size, those totems of his debauchery?Their five men’s World Cup victories, the fact that they can call cricket their national sport?The mythology of Baggy Green?That they do not know how to pronounce the surname of Marnus Labuschagne correctly?
The fact behind antipathy is possibly quite simple: we are them. On the contrary, they are us. Or a distorted edition of us reflected across the Indian Ocean as if coming from a funny mirror. They play the way we play. Like us, they are victims of British imperialism and human rights violators. Are we cousins?Brothers and sisters?The most productive of enemies?
I took off my freelance journalist’s cap and put on the partisan amateur helmet. It’s hard not to do that when the South African Proteas face Australia. Growing up in the early years of a democracy that had linked its nation-building task to its sports teams. , I felt obliged to the athletes who represented my country.
Your good fortune has been my good fortune. Their warring sides were my villains. And there were no bigger villains in any game than the Australian men’s cricket team.
This concept germinated before I understood that foreign gambling is a political act. Australians were the last to confront South Africa before its post-apartheid isolation. Bill Lawry’s Australians arrived in Cape Town in January 1970 and were defeated 4-0 by a team of legends. – Mike Procter took 26 pitches at 13:37; Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards scored more than 500 runs averaging 70.
Then the screen went off for 21 years. When rekindled, the burnt imprint of that rivalry is still visual and would go on to outline the meaning of South African cricket for 3 decades. The clashes with and in Australia serve as reference points that guide the chronicle of the evolution of the state of the game in the country.
In 1992, at the first World Cup in South Africa in England, rain and the absence of the Duckvalue-Lewis-Stern formula combined them from the competition. Two years later, on the same course, a virtuoso display of swing and pace through Fanie de Villiers, worth six to 43, beat Australia by 111 in a five-point victory.
An era of subjugation followed. In the Top Trumps game, Australia has had a top card. Daryll Cullinan’s shooting game was brought forward thanks to the cunning of Shane Warne. The genius of Jacques Kallis has never won as many fites as Ricky Ponting’s bat. Glenn’s efficiency McGrath. La Hansie Cronje’s kindness vanished in Steve Waugh’s furnace of cruelty.
Creating a list of the most memorable moments, matches and series as a South African cricket fan temporarily becomes a record for iconic duels against the old enemy. What about “Game 438” in 2006, where Herschelle Gibbs hit 175 of 111 balls to win the most notable ODI in history?Or does this name belong to the tied semifinal of the World Cup?Cup in 1999 when Donald dropped his bat and was exhausted with only 3 balls remaining in the chase?
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These two are not bored. There’s too much needle for that. Maybe that’s why the Klitschko brothers never fought in the ring.
This upcoming series in Australia is the first since the 2018 “Sandpapergate” scandal, the most debatable incident in a series drowned by flash points. Before Cameron Bancroft got his hands in his pants in Cape Town, a fight broke out between the almaximum groups. Only an intervention through Faf du Plessis, dressed only in a small white towel around his waist, prevented violence.
South Africa is a team that has replaced a lot since that 3-1 playoff victory. Du Plessis, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Quinton de Kock have retired. They arguably have the maximum amount of bowling. attack in the world, with the giant left arm Marco Jansen complementing the fast speed of Anrich Nortje and the generational talent of Kagiso Rabada. But the stick is still a concern.
No single South African is on average 40 years old. Temba Bavuma returns from injury but, with only a century of 51 tests, it’s not a gamble. The captain, Dean Elgar, expects his team to maintain its leadership and score. Enough bad trouble to give their bowlers a chance.
But those are just cricket words. Averages, pie charts and throwing cards: we have numbers for each. For South Africans, adding those who watch early in the morning, this rivalry feeds on an unquantifiable emotion.
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