Leading Edge: The most important cricket event in 2015? Not the World Cup

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

IT is the elephant in the dressingroom, the thing whose name shall be spoken as often as possible wherever two or three are gathered in the name of cricket.

It is the 2015 World Cup, and some will be sick of the damn fool thing before it has even started. South Africans, in particular, are prone to going gaga at tournament time. They know why - if their team win one they could stop obsessing about what that feels like. They would simply know. For now, they don’t.

Sean Fitzpatrick, the former All Black captain, tells a story of seeking solace from another New Zealand World Cup meltdown by driving around some of the quieter roads of his neighbourhood.

Just when he had roamed enough empty streets to take the edge off his anger and confusion, Fitzpatrick came across a man wearing an all Black jersey who had built a bonfire in his backyard upon which he was about to sacrifice a television set. Now there’s a twist in the cliche of shooting the messenger.

Cricketminded South Africans have yet to reach, as far as we know, levels of frustration desperate enough to prompt them to commit TVicide. But they’re getting there.

So, for these tortured souls, we offer this bulletproof truth as a comfort: the World Cup is not the be-all. It is also not the end-all. It is not even the most important or the most interesting cricket SA will play this year.

That will start in October and continue into 2016 in the shape of series of four tests each in India and at home against England. Only after those matches will we be able to see how well they have recovered from the retirements of Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith and the departure of Gary Kirsten.

But don’t take this column’s word for it. Even though he admitted that “the World Cup is the marquee event that we’re all extremely excited about and looking forward to,” Hashim Amla’s eye lit up this week when he considered the rest of SA’s programme for 2015.

“India and England, as two of the higher ranked teams, should prove a really good challenge. It’s a lot to look forward to. We have a youngish team and there’s a lot of optimism.”

India will be a searching test for SA on all levels. They will have to deal with harsh conditions, intense public interest and incessant media scrutiny - and that’s before we consider the strength of their opponents. The Indians, of course, will also be in transition: no-one is going to have forgotten Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni by the time the series starts.

England will be an easier proposition, especially in SA. But their tours here have a way of spinning out of anyone’s control, even someone as grounded as Michael Atherton, who shattered a chairs in the St George’s Park dressingroom with his bat in December, 1995. In the infamous “Leather Jacket” test at Centurion in January, 2000, Hansie Cronje took illicit cash and a jacket for his wife to convince Michael Vaughan to engineer a positive result in a rain ruined match.

Kallis’ absence could be most keenly felt in India, where he had the patience, application and discipline to score three centuries and two half-centuries in 15 test innings. Smith was the king of England, where he made seven centuries - two of them double tons - and seven 50s in his 22 trips to the crease.

Happily, then, Amla has proved he can fill both gaps. He is the only South African to have scored four centuries in India, and his undefeated 311 at the Oval in July, 2012 will remain the stuff of English nightmares for years.

The World Cup? That, too, shall pass.