Piedt, Van Zyl agreeable in their differences

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Stiaan van Zyl is sensible, both as a batsman and a young man. So when he learned of his inclusion in the SA test squad to tour Sri Lanka next month, he telephoned his father with the happy news.

Dane Piedt is a nice kid. But, as a spinner, that most suspicious species of cricketer in SA, he should not be accused of sensibility without compelling evidence.

“I told my dog first because my dog was sitting next to me,” Piedt said.

Dog’s name, please? “Corona. A husky, four months old.”

Named after the beer? “Yes.”

But Piedt did have the good manners to wait for his parents to come home before he told anyone else.

Different though they are, Van Zyl and Piedt are both alumni of Kenridge Primary School in Cape Town.

“Stiaan was the jock,” Piedt, who is two-and-a-half years younger than Van Zyl, said of his Cobras teammate. “Everyone looked up to him. He was the first team flyhalf and the opening bowler, and he opened the batting.”

That did not quite square with Van Zyl’s memory: “I called myself a fast bowler even though I was slow.”

By the time Piedt played for the Western Province under-19 team, he was opening the batting as well as bowling spin - and confident that he was on the right path.

“It’s a cliche, but since the age of five it’s been a dream of mine to play for the Proteas,” he said.

Not so Van Zyl: “My focus was never really on playing for SA. It was on doing well for the Cobras.”

Perhaps that difference between them exists because quality spinners are far thinner on the ground, particularly in SA, than fine batsmen. The Cobras’ line-up alone was studded with Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith and, lately, Hashim Amla.

“I was trying to be next in line when one of them retired,” Van Zyl said.

But there was an upside to trying to shine in a dressingroom dazzling with stars.

“We have great senior players playing with us,” Van Zyl said. “We are open to what they can teach us and do for us.”

Piedt has the benefit of Paul Adams’ presence - “It was always the big thing for us coloured folk, watching him play for the Proteas” - and last season that of Sunil Narine - “Sunil said about 30 words the whole time he was here, but just watching him you can learn so much” - but he has gone beyond Newlands’ boundaries to further his education.

“It was 10 days of learning,” he said of an intensive spin bowling camp in Bangladesh in April, 2011. “I learnt to bowl the carrom ball from a 15-year-old who bowled right-arm and left-arm.”

Did he also teach Piedt to talk to animals?