Times Media
TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg
SA blooded two players in the first test against England at St George’s Park on December 17, 2004. One was a 20-year-old who, despite his penchant for audacious strokeplay, opened the batting in that match. The other was a tearaway quick who, at 21, seemed afraid of what his bowling could do.
On Wednesday, exactly 10 years later, AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn will play their 96th and 76th tests respectively when the series against West Indies starts at Centurion.
Along the way they have become cricket’s leading exponents of the stupendous with bat and ball. Or, as Steyn said on Monday with a jerk of his thumb towards De Villiers sitting next to him: “I only dread two games a year - the two IPL (Indian Premier League) games I’ve got to play against this guy.”
But did it feel like they had been test cricketers for 10 years?
“I don’t know,” Steyn ventured before passing the buck. “What do you think?”
De Villiers mulled a moment as he slathered his face with sunblock in preparation for the approaching training session. Then he sighed softly and said firmly: “Yes, it does.”
Perhaps not for Steyn: “It’s gone quickly. We’ve been around the world, so many places. What amazes me is that I have only been to one World Cup in 10 years.
“I don’t know what will happen with us or my career in the next three or four years, but it’s been a great 10 years.”
De Villiers’ memory from that Port Elizabeth test was of Steyn “steaming in and getting Michael Vaughan out, and that’s when everyone realised he is going to be a special player for years to come”.
Steyn remembered that SA “lost (by seven wickets) to a side everybody said we should have beaten - a mistake we don’t want to make twice”.
SA face similar expectations of success going into the series against the eighth-ranked Windies.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for them but keeping in mind that we should beat them over here, we are going to walk around with a lot of confidence,” De Villiers said. “The fact that we are No. 1 in the world plays a big part.”
The West Indians arrived in SA under the cloud of a pay dispute that still swirls. That, Steyn said, could cut both ways.
“The wounded buffalo is always dangerous,” he said. “They could come out firing and playing the most determined cricket they have in a long time or they could come our as individuals and quickly fold.”
But Steyn was happy to swap his one-day pyjamas for test whites: “We are playing so much one-day cricket, its just become a bloody pain in the ass.”
Blame that on the approaching World Cup. SA’s last played a test against Zimbabwe in Harare in August. Since then, they have chalked up 16 ODIs and three T20s.
And all in the cause of acing a World Cup that, for them, starts against Zimbabwe in Hamilton on February 15.
Because, for all the achievements of stars like De Villiers and Steyn, nothing would mean more to South Africans than the gleam of that trophy.
Steyn, too, knew his career would not be complete without a World Cup win: “It’s not over; it’s kind of three-quarters of the way there.”
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