What is it that provokes the enmity from South Africa cricket fans towards Australia? Is it the over-sized stadiums, those totems to their debauchery? Their five World Cup wins in the men’s game? The fact that they can call cricket their national sport? The mythology of the Baggy Green? That they can’t pronounce Marnus Labuschagne’s surname correctly?
The truth behind the antipathy is perhaps pretty simple: we are them. Rather, they are us. Or some distorted version of us reflected back from across the Indian Ocean as if from a funhouse mirror. They play how we play. Like us, they’re victims of British imperialism as well as perpetrators of human rights abuses. Are we cousins? Siblings? The best of frenemies?
I’ve thrown off my impartial journalist hat and pulled on my partisan fan helmet. It’s hard not to when the South African Proteas take on Australia. Growing up in the early years of a democracy that had tethered its nation-building project to its sports teams, I felt duty bound to support the athletes who represented my country.
Their success was my success. Their opponents were my villains. And there were no greater villains in all of sport than the Australian men’s cricket team.
This idea took root before I understood that international sport is a political act. The Australians were the last to compete against South Africa before their isolation as a consequence of apartheid. Bill Lawry’s Aussies arrived in Cape Town in January 1970 and were soundly thumped 4-0 by a team of legends – Mike Procter took 26 wickets at 13.37; Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards each scored more than 500 runs at an average north of 70.
Then the screen went dark for 21 years. When it blinked back on, the burned imprint of this rivalry could still be seen and would go on to define South African cricket’s sense of itself for three decades. Clashes with and in Australia serve as guiding signposts chronicling the evolving state of the game in the country.
In Sydney in 1992, at South Africa’s debut World Cup, England, rain and the absence of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern formula combined to dump them out of the competition. Two years later at the same ground, a virtuoso display of swing and pace from Fanie de Villiers, worth six for 43, bowled Australia out for 111 in a five-run win.
There followed an era of subjugation. In the game of Top Trumps, Australia always had a higher card. Daryll Cullinan’s strokeplay was bettered by Shane Warne’s guile. Jacques Kallis’s genius never won as many games as Ricky Ponting’s bat. Allan Donald’s speed couldn’t match Glenn McGrath’s efficiency. Hansie Cronje’s affability wilted in the furnace of Steve Waugh’s ruthlessness.
Creating a list of the most memorable moments, matches and series as a South African cricket fan quickly morphs into a record of iconic duels against the old enemy. Remember when Adam Gilchrist scored the fastest Test double century at the Wanderers, thwacking an unbeaten 204 to set up an innings victory in 2002? What about the “438 Game” in 2006 where Herschelle Gibbs struck 175 from 111 balls to win the most remarkable ODI in history? Or does that title belong to the tied World Cup semi-final in 1999 when Donald dropped his bat and was run out with only three balls left in the chase?
These two don’t do boring. There’s too much needle for that. Perhaps this is why the Klitschko brothers never fought each other in the ring.
This upcoming series in Australia is the first since the “Sandpapergate” scandal of 2018, the most contentious incident across a series choked with flashpoints. Before Cameron Bancroft was caught with his hands down his pants in Cape Town, a fight between the teams nearly broke out in the player’s tunnel in Durban. Only an intervention by Faf du Plessis – wearing nothing but a small white towel around his waist – prevented violence.
South Africa are a much-changed team since that 3-1 series win. Du Plessis, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Quinton de Kock have all retired. They have arguably the most complete bowling attack in the world, with the tall left-armer Marco Jansen complimenting the express pace of Anrich Nortje and generational talent of Kagiso Rabada. But the batting remains a concern.
Not one South African averages in the 40s. Temba Bavuma returns from injury but, with only one century from 51 Tests, he is hardly a safe bet. The captain, Dean Elgar, will hope his team can follow his lead and score enough ugly runs to give his bowlers a chance.
But that’s just cricket talk. Averages, pie charts and pitch maps – we have numbers for those. For South Africans, including those watching in the early hours, this rivalry is fuelled by unquantifiable emotion.
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