Sunday Times
TELFORD VICE, Cape Town
NEWLANDS is as steeped in gentility as a cup of Earl Grey is in bergamot. It is by any measure a long way from M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, more than 8000 kilometres north of Cape Town.
But it is there, and not at Newlands, that Andre Odendaal had what he calls the “best moment” of his 10 years at the helm of cricket in the Western Cape.
On October 8, 2009, Newlands lay silent. But M Chinnaswamy was alive and roaring with 36 000 souls in support of a team that counted Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher and Roelof van der Merwe as their own - the Royal Challengers.
Ranged against them were the Cobras in no less grand an engagement than the inaugural match of the Champions League T20 (CLT20).
“Our salary bill was four-and-a-half million and theirs was 49-million,” Odendaal, the chief executive of the Cobras and the WP Cricket Association, remembered.
“Ten of our guys were local and eight were black.
“And JP scored 99 not out ...”
Duminy’s innings, an unbreakable alloy of confidence and calm, took the Cobras to victory by five wickets.
They lost to Trinidad and Tobago in the semi-finals, but failed to emerge from the group stage on their next and most recent trip to the tournament in October, 2011.
The Cobras are in the CLT20 mix again this year, which is not surprising considering they have won or shared 10 titles - four first-class, four one-day and two T20 - since the dawn of the franchise age in 2004-05.
Not so SA’s other CLT20 representatives, the Dolphins, who before they won last season’s T20 competition had only a share of two first-class championships to show for their efforts.
Newlands is what cricket looks like in some South Africans’ idea of heaven. Kingsmead, which rubs a grimy shoulder with inner-city Durban, is where the game goes to get mugged.
But it is the Cobras who are sounding less assured going into the event, which for them starts with a game against one of the as yet undecided qualifiers in Raipur on Friday.
Dale Steyn is being rested in the national cause and Beuran Hendricks is injured, although he would probably have played for the Punjab Kings XI.
But the biggest blow in what Odendaal called “massive damage to the core of the team” is Duminy’s removal from the equation with a knee problem.
“He’s a key T20 player in the way he absorbs pressure, and he is a three-in-one player. That’s going to really affect the heart of the team.
“He’s also such a calm guy with great dignity. His not being there is really going to hurt us.”
Not that the Cobras would be on a mission impossible: “People like Robin Peterson and the two Justins (Ontong and Kemp) and Vernon (Philander) and Rory (Kleinveldt) and Hashim (Amla) are beautiful leadership material.”
The Dolphins will be without the booming bat of David Miller, who will wear Punjab’s pyjamas.
“It is irritating because he played a big hand in what we did,” coach Lance Klusener said. “So we might have to change the way we play.”
But not by much: “We bring a bit of unknown. The format suits the way we play - we come quite hard, and it’s four games and in you’re in the semis with a shot at the title.
“So we’re certainly not going there thinking it’s nice to be there. We’re trying to win the thing.”
The Dolphins launch their campaign on Saturday against the Perth Scorchers in Mohali, where - if Klusener’s kids play as good a game as he talks - the mugging stats could spike.
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