All that Jazz 07/06/2010

Wherever you are in the world if the Springboks are playing an international you have to make every effort to make sure that you watch it. On Saturday the boys played against Wales and much research had gone into the start time and a venue in which we could watch. Four of us, all South Africans, set off after breakfast for the cricket ground and the sports bar therein called “All Out”. We were told that the game started at 10h00 on Fox Sports but we were only aware that the billing was simply ‘International Rugby’. Johnnie VT (VT), Louw (camera 2), Mani (camera 10) and me arrived at the bar at 09h40 and settled in to await the start of the game.

Imagine our disappointment when on the stroke of ten we were greeted with pictures of a rugby ground but the two teams lined up for the national anthems were Fiji and Australia!! I ‘phoned Tony Hofmann (a good friend and also a cameraman but not on this tour) back in Cape Town who told us that the game had started at 09h30 and the Boks were 16-6 down. No problem, plan B which on reflection should have been plan A, we hurried back to the hotel and once again after a few expletives these engineering boffins managed to hook up to the game through their laptops and channel it through onto the TV screen in Mani’s room. I swear that if we had been in the middle of the Gobi desert, these guys would have found a way of watching the game!!

That evening it was off to Arapita Ave which is the street that I told you about before that has all the restaurants, bars and clubs in and where we had such an excellent meal at Angelo’s. Saturday night however, it was to be Satchmo’s about three doors down from Angelo’s. In attendance was Kate (production manager), Alex or ‘Jacko’ (surname, Jackson) who is Kate’s soul mate and assistant on the tour, Ben (Hawkeye) and me. Now I don’t often demand to see the chef because I am very easy to please when it comes to food but that night I decided that it was imperative that I had a word on behalf of all four of us. Kate and Ben had steak, Jacko and I had a Salmon dish with a sauce. Now it looked brilliant in the picture on the menu and as I ordered it I was aware of the old saying of ‘never judge a book by its cover’ but I had no idea that salmon could be so delicious!! So, the chef was duly congratulated, two bottles of red wine were consumed and we had one standing up at Shakers, a dodgy looking pub across the road.

My only complaint for the night was that the jazz quartet who played beautifully in the background didn’t know how to play ‘What a Wonderful World’ and we were in Satchmo’s!!!

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White Washed Windies 04/06/2010

The Proteas have made amends for their abysmal performance in the T20 World Cup. White washing the West Indies in both the T20 and ODI formats will certainly go some way towards taking the team into a new era. New combinations have been tried, the top order have been in blistering form, but as good as The Proteas were in this series the West Indies were woeful. We need to be cautious in celebrating this victory.

Chris Gayle, an individual talent stands head and shoulders above his team. And not just literally. His frustration with his team was exemplified in his blow out with spinner Suleman Benn in Dominca on Monday and Benn's exclusion from the team yesterday ultimately cost the West Indies much-needed variation to their attack. The perennial reliance on Chris Gayle is unhealthy. On the day that Zimbabwe's second defeat of India was celebrated as a victory for the development of the game, the cricketing world should also be concerned at the state of West Indian cricket. World cricket needs a strong West Indian team.

The match yesterday was a close one. A very tense finish saw Tsotsobe hit the winning runs in his maiden international innings but again ill disciplined bowling costed the West Indies. Mark Boucher was included in the team as a replacement for the injured Miller but was curiously not allowed to keep. His catch to dismiss the younger of the Bravo brothers was a memorable one. His innings, less so. It remains to be answered why the selctors opted for Boucher instead of Peterson as a specialist batsman. Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers have starred with the bat in this series giving Graeme Smith time to play himself back into form. JP Duminy's workman-like half century yesterday is also encouraging ahead of the test series.

The West Indies have simply not been good enough.

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Last of the ODIs 04/06/2010

Today saw the last of the ODI’s with the West Indies once again winning the toss and choosing bat first on a very dry looking pitch. It would seem that Sulieman Benn has been left out of the team for disciplinary reasons because the West Indies have gone into this game without a specialist spinner. South Africa on the hand, have played both spinners so it isn’t difficult to form an opinion on Mr Benn’s omission.

The West Indies appeared a great deal more structured with Shivnarine Chanderpaul playing the anchor roll and Narsingh Deonarine proving him with good support. When you add some hard hitting at the end by Keiron Pollard and Darren Sammy we witnessed an overall innings that appeared to have a plan, something that has been lacking in the series so far from the home team. 252 – 6 would appear to be a competitive total but it was the South African spinners that helped limit the West Indies and I have a feeling that the lack of a specialist spinner in their line up might be sorely missed.

South Africa started well enough again with Hashim Amla going past 400 runs for the series and with Graeme Smith, putting on 40 for the first wicket before Smith became Dwayne Bravo’s victim for the fourth time in five matches. Amla’s untimely run out didn’t really make much difference to the tempo of the South African innings as Jacques Kallis continued in a positive manner in partnership with AB de Villiers before AB rather surprisingly holed out to long on in Chris Gayle’s first over.

This appeared to be a minor setback until Kallis was given out caught behind the wicket, a decision, it would seem, that he didn’t entirely agree with and Mark Boucher was put under pressure having had no cricket so far on the tour. This all lead to the run rate creeping out although all was still pretty much under control until JP Duminy (51 in 75 balls) was bowled by Jerome Taylor playing a shot that didn’t seem necessary at the time. This brought Ryan McLaren to the crease who found it difficult to lay bat on ball and the pressure mounted to such a degree that the run rate was suddenly out to 8 runs an over.

Meanwhile, Johan Botha kept a cool head and batted very sensibly. Then horrors of horrors, Botha miss-timed a pull shot onto the leg side and David Bernard took a spectacular catch in the deep and McLaren was run out in the space of 4 balls. This left South Africa requiring 17 to win from the last two overs.

Roelof van der Merwe, the little tiger that he is saw South Africa home and ‘Lopsy’ Tsotsobe hit the winning runs with two balls to go.

That brings to an end an excellent campaign for Graeme Smith and his team with the Test match series ahead. It also ends my regular daily blogs, but look out for the odd one from me during the Tests.

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Ironing & Angelo's 03/06/2010

Well I am here to tell you all that I put in a career best performance with the iron this morning. I have to confess that I surprised myself with the ease with which I flattened out three shirts in ten minutes or so. The other five shirts are casual shirts so I am going to let them hang themselves out, I wouldn’t want to get too carried away with this new found skill that I have discovered.

The 1st of June is officially the beginning of the rainy season here in the Caribbean so we are expecting some rain in Trinidad over the next couple of weeks. It is a beautiful day here at the moment with a bit of a breeze to cool things down a bit.

The day remained dry and wonderful. For my part, I decided to take a wander up to the main area where there are lots of restaurants all established many years ago and the most of them are old Victorian style homes that have converted into restaurants. Angelo’s is of particular interest today, purely because we went there the night before for dinner. The food was plentiful, expensive and outstanding. You know, not many people complain about paying a little over the top if they receive the best and Angelo’s would fit into the category of the best.

I had prawns of some kind to start with and then Rack of Lamb. When I have had Rack of Lamb before, I seem to remember that 3 or 4 pieces of lamb is about the most one gets. Thick, succulent and cooked to your liking they may be, but only three or four. Order Rack of Lamb at Angelo’s in Port of Spain, Trinidad and you get all of the above and seven times over!! Yes, seven lamb chops and cooked to perfection, medium rare as ordered and accompanied by new potatoes and vegetables. (To be honest, the veggies didn’t really interest me that much).

So, what about today, the last of the ODI’s and South Africa looking for a clean sweep? Can they do it? I really do believe that they can.

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The competitive instinct kicks 03/06/2010

 It is a very long time since I competed at international level -- at
least it feels like a very long time -- but one thing I clearly remember
from the many one-day series in which I was involved was the thrill of a
possible clean sweep.

   There is only one thing harder than winning a series, and that is to win
every single game.  It rarely happens, even between undoubted favourites and
significant underdogs, so when you get the chance to do it, especially in a
five match series, the competitive instinct kicks in as hard as ever.

   The most vulnerable game in a five match series in which a team has gone
three nil up is, perhaps obviously, the fourth.  I know all too well what is
said in team meetings about maintaining focus and preserving standards in
the game after a series has been won, but the truth is -- words are words,
even when they are good words, and sometimes it is hard to produce actions
which are as good!

   But the Proteas chased down 300 to win the fourth game and, although it
was a bit scrappy at the end, I know how important that result would have
been to them.  Every team is vulnerable in the match after a series has been
won, but I thought they showed as much determination as they had in any of
the three preceding matches.

   They will have been a little disappointed that it came down to the last
ball, but at least they got the job done -- again.  It reminded me of my old
friend Lance Klusener¹s favourite saying: "Set out to win every game with an
over to spare.² The run chase was brilliantly organised and professionally
managed for 98% of the way, but could still have gone wrong in the final
couple of deliveries.  Rather remove that possibility from the equation a
little earlier on!

   Easier said than done.  I know that.  I've been there.  And if I was
still there, I'd probably be slightly irritated hearing that comment from a
former playerS!

   I'm not sure what everybody else is feeling about Hashim Amla, but from
my position -- either behind my Standard Bank desk or from my surfboard --
he is one of the best current players in the world. I know that statistics
will back that up, but the evidence of the eyes is just as important.  He is
in phenomenal form which comes from his deeply researched knowledge of his
own game.  It doesn't matter whether anybody else knows your game when you
know it as well as he does.

   AB de Villiers, too, is in the form of his life.  Four centuries in his
last eight ODIs at a strike rate of over 100 and an average of 67.  Nobody,
not even Sachin (though he comes close) can match that.

   Not many teams get the chance to win every game in a series.  It is very
rare.  If Graeme and his team can do it, they deserve a respectable break
from all the conjecture about the Oquality¹ of the four previous wins.

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