CricketZA

Cricinfo once described Graeme Smith as "Meaty, Mighty and Muscular", quite fitting given the fact that he is 6'4. His nickname, "Biff" is born from the way he muscles a cricket ball. Basically, Graeme Smith is if "Power and Aggression" was a person. But there's a little more to Smith than just sheer force. There's also an almost reckless sense of bravery. Much like the good Lord, this bravery giveth (after all, you need to be quite brave to accept the job of national team captain at the humble age of 22). It has also most definitely taketh (South Africa found themselves 27/5 in a World Cup Semi-Final while playing "Brave cricket"). There was obviously a high level of Cricket and general intelligence, and there was definitely a sense of ambition. Born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa to Graham (yep) and Jane Smith, Smith showed early leadership qualities from a young age while attending King Edward VII. Having moved down to...

It says something about the proceeding years that most people couldn't tell you that a 21-year old Vernon Philander was a member of the 2007 World T20 team. I don't blame you if you do not remember. Even Gulam Bodi was probably slightly more memorable, given his spat with Kevin Pietersen. The birth of Vernon Philander the international cricketer is instead viewed as having been at Newlands 2011. Full disclosure, people. This might be my single favourite Test of all time. It all starts with Michael Clarke scoring maybe the finest hundred by a visiting batsman in the last ten years. Coming in at 40-3, with a rampant bowling attack in top form, Clarke scored 151 of the most incredible runs you could see. From the moment Clarke walked in to to the moment Australia lost their tenth wicket, 244 runs were scored. Of those, Clarke scored 151 of them. Australia were thus all out for 284, and South Africa would have been feeling reasonably confident of getting a lead here. No. The...

In the wonderfully entertaining Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Brad Pitt's title character notes that "In the end, you start to think about the beginning". Philosophically, this tends to be the case. As the end of anything draws nearer, we tend to remember the spring of that thing, be it a relationship or a life. In sport though, in the end, we tend to think about the end. This can be seen no clearer than in the case of Hashim Amla. A career which had over 18 000 runs and 55 centuries - both marks good for #2 on the all-time list in South African terms - seemed to really drag on by the end, with many calling for Zubayr Hamza to become his successor as it became clear that the well had run dry. Very few people, if any, called for him to stay once he did retire, and there has been no clamoring for his return in the way there was and continues to be for his 2004 debut alumni, AB de Villiers . Some of this obviously is because AB de Villiers was a superstar in global terms, and as ...

If you've watched some IPL, you would have heard it before. A wicket falls, and then another. Then the cacophany of sound starts. You can hear it, "AB" "AB", "AB". Cricket is a game which can be a little boring. Even in it's most condensed form. You could argue that there are only a handful of superstars in cricket. Virat Kohli is one. Not only because of the fact that he is the face of cricket in the biggest market in world cricket, but his attitude, the way he carries himself. He stands a man apart there. AB de Villiers never quite carried himself that way, but he had that superstar quality. He walks in and the crowd is nearly in rapture. He hasn't even batted yet, and people are already excited. It took five Tests for AB to confirm that there was substance to his promise. It must be noted that when AB made his debut on the 17th of December 2004, South African cricket was in a bit of rut. They were less than 18 months removed from a prett...

Twenty-two. That is the amount of players in all of cricketing history who have taken more international wickets than Jacques Kallis. Four. That is in totality the amount of players in all of international cricket who have scored more runs than Jacques Kallis. No other player appears in the top 25 in both lists. In fact, no other player appears in the top fifty. You could expand that into a top 100 list, and the only player not named Kallis to feature would be Shahid Afridi. A mildly surprising fact, I suppose, but there you go. Of course, an achievement like this is inherently related to longevity, as well as continued health, but much of that longevity has to do with the fact that Jacques Kallis was for 15 years the undisputed best all-rounder in the game, especially when all formats were considered. Do you know who wasn't the best in their art for 15 years? Michael Jordan. You know who else? Tiger Woods. In Jacques Kallis, South Africa had arguably the most statistically domi...

 If averages is your gig, then there can be no doubt that Graeme Pollock presents a very compelling case for being South Africa's greatest ever cricketer. In fact, he was voted just that in 2000, and it is debatable whether anything has happened since to bring that finding into disrepute. A crunching left-handed batsman. he had it all. The cover drive, the leg glance, the pull, the hook the cut. The ferocity. Before Viv Richards had the temerity to not wear helmets at bowlers bowling at 90mph, you could argue that Graeme Pollock was the original Master Blaster. Standing at 6'4, with a "road sweeper" for a bat, he certainly could make his presence felt. Many say Barry Richards is the greatest South African cricketer to ever lace them up. He certainly played well enough to back up that assertion in the limited opportunities he got. However, any man who played an innings Bill Lawry called the greatest knock he'd ever seen, or is acclaimed as the best left-hander ever...