Sunday Times
TELFORD VICE, Cape Town
GOOD thing it happened to Pat Symcox. Someone not blessed with enough humour might not have “laughed and laughed”, he said, when an entire roast chicken landed near him with a juicy thud as he fielded on the third man boundary at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1997.
The repurposed poultry was the most remarkable element of a shower of golf balls, bottles and tennis balls wet with who the hell knew what that rained down from the stands onto the South Africans.
After he stopped laughing, Symcox heaved the funky chicken back from whence it came. Clearly, those spectators knew who to flip the bird at: Symcox went on to take a career-best 4/28 in SA’s 67-run win.
Stories like that are among the many that will be handed down to the SA class of 2014-15 who are in Australia to play three T20s and five one-day internationals in the next and most important stage of their preparation for next year’s World Cup.
The tournament will be played in Australia and New Zealand in February and March, and while SA will not have to think about how to beat either of the home sides until - or if - they face them in the sudden death rounds, they will still have to put up with some of the most boorish crowds in sport.
While SA were winning their three-match one-day series in New Zealand, which ended last week, AB de Villiers repeatedly brought up the subject of the importance of adjusting to the parallel universe that awaits visiting teams Down Under - particularly in Australia.
Or, as JP Duminy, the captain of a T20 squad that includes Kagiso Rabada, Reeza Hendricks and Marchant de Lange for a series that starts in Adelaide on Wednesday, said: “It’s great that we have the chance to see new faces and see guys perform at this level, especially in Australia against such a formidable side; to experience the atmosphere and the crowds.”
Small as that consideration seems, it is an inkling into how carefully SA are readying themselves for the World Cup.
Attention to detail is not something too many SA teams of the past could be accused of. The 2003 World Cup squad, for instance, failed to remember that the target on the Duckworth/Lewis sheet is the par score. To win, a team needs to score one more run than that number. SA learnt that lesson the hard way against Sri Lanka on a drizzly night at Kingsmead. The resultant tie put them out of the tournament.
AS SA’s coach, Eric Simons presided over that unhappy dressingroom. Now, less than four months before De Villiers’ team open their World Cup account against Zimbabwe in Hamilton, he likes what he sees.
“There’s a sense of real calmness about this team,” Simons said. “From Hashim Amla through to AB and now JP, there’s a similar thread in terms of personality and the way the guys go about their business.”
And it was smart business for SA to test their mettle against opponents who have so often told them truths they did not want to know.
“It’s very important, that battle-hardness you get playing in Australia,” Simons said. “There’s no point winning easy games at this stage of your preparation.”
SA will not want for preparation, what with 10 more ODIs scheduled before the tournament. Too many?
“It’s about finding out for themselves how they function as a team and how they fit into different roles and different situation,” Simons said. “With something as big as the World Cup, you don’t peak too early - you just carry momentum into the tournament.”
On sturdy wings, of course. Not those of a freshly flung roast chicken.
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