SA A tour to Sri Lanka brings back memories of Klusener, Pollock and Kallis

The departure last week of a SA A tour squad to Sri Lanka may not have caught much of the public ’ s imagination in the shadow of the IPL’s ultimate end and rugby’s 13-month per-year calendar, but it might still be a big story for cricket in the years to come.

Almost 30 years ago national coach Bob Woolmer initiated a similar tour to Sri Lanka. The year was 1995 and the Sri Lankan Cricket Board, concerned that an SA A team might embarrass one of their own, sought a handicap assurance by stipulating that it should be an under-24 assignment. This suited the tourists even more.

It was a time of glorious and latterly cherished innocence, if not fully appreciated at the time. It may well have been that a generation of unusually and, in some cases, extraordinarily talented young cricketers just happened to arrive at the same time and were destined to achieve remarkable things anyway.

But the likelihood is that their fates were moulded on that tour and their paths to success hastened. It was an exceptional squad, by any measure. Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and Nicky Bojé were among those to enjoy outstanding international careers. But the youngest of them all, Jacques Kallis, made the greatest impact and started one of the best careers to date.

Gerhardus Liebenberg scored three centuries on the tour including a monumental 170 not out during the three one-day games that followed the three-match series of fourday games, which the young South Africans won 1-0 before drawing the 50-over series 1-1.

“Gerry” earmarked himself for a long, successful international career but he never recovered from a wretched Test series opening the batting in England three years later.

Bojé took a bagful of wickets and went on to claim 100 Test scalps to complement a fine ODI career while Zimbabwean leg-spinner Adam Huckle, selected on his SA passport, enjoyed sporadic moments of success in his homeland before becoming a successful pharmacist in London.

Captain Dale Benkenstein was an astonishingly distinguished ambassador for his country for one so young, frequently being required to make speeches and look comfortable during awkward welcoming ceremonies. He also scored runs consistently, bowled useful overs of medium pace and led the team as insightfully on the field as he did diplomatically off it.

Like many players subsequently, Benkenstein did not fit SA cricket’s prescribed pigeonholes. Not a fast bowler, nor a dashing batsman. Sporadically involved with the national team, including as a never-used member of the 1999 World Cup squad, he was undervalued and underappreciated until he found his niche as captain of England’s newest first-class county, Durham, leading them to their first title.

He is regarded as a legend in the northeast of the country and now coaches Gloucestershire.

HD Ackerman, too, was discarded too quickly from the national setup but found a happy place with Leicestershire amid the peak of the Kolpak exodus where he broke several county records and retains them to this day.

Roger Telemachus was another who benefited greatly from the experience without establishing himself at the highest level.

Woolmer is remembered for the “innovation” of using Klusener as a pinch-hitter at No 3 for the Proteas on their tour of India in 1997 — he scored a match-winning 88* against Australia in Guwahati in 1996 in just his third ODI — but look back at those now obscure scorecards from two years earlier and you’ll find confirmation that the coach had first made the move two and a half years earlier. It was a time for experimentation far beyond even the briefest public scrutiny.

There were others who didn’t make it as career professionals, but the process of the tour and experiences it gave them were invaluable. The financially astute Mark Bruyns always had alternative career prospects and Finlay Brooker, a left-hander with flair, remains involved in the administration of the game with Griquas.

Mark Davis enjoyed a successful career with Northerns before moving into an equally distinguished coaching career in England while Ross Veenstra, one of those rare all-rounders good enough to open both the batting and bowling, drifted quietly away from the game without making the impact many said he might.

Who knows what will come of this tour, and who may be* “made”. Shukri Conrad and Rob Walter will be there to oversee the next generation of Proteas. There can be few better coaches in the country to make the best of the opportunity. Conrad identified Tony de Zorzi as a “future captain” when he selected him for the Tests and ODIs against the West Indies at the end of the summer. It was a nomination with considerable weight of expectation.

There were just two reporters on that original tour — the late Trevor Chesterfield and me. These days there is more chance of a SA journalist reporting on the underwater basket-weaving world championships than an SA A cricket tour. But I’ll be keeping a close eye on it, for old time’s sake as well as the future’s.