Proteas promise to raise intensity ahead of England clash

DANIEL GALLAN: Few events in South African sport stir the passions of supporters like the arrival of an English cricket team

Intensity. It’s been impossible to avoid the word in the lead up to the first of four Tests between South Africa and England, beginning on Boxing Day in Centurion. It has hovered over the Proteas camp like a religious battle cry and dripped from the lips of every player and coach who has fronted the media this past week.

One definition of the word is, “the measurable amount of a property, such as force, brightness, or a magnetic field.” For South African cricket, that property is positivity.

“As a team, we are more optimistic than we have been in a while,” du Plessis said last week. “We are definitely going in the right direction.”

The main source of this newfound optimism is the appointment of legendary figures among the support staff. Graeme Smith has been drafted in as Cricket South Africa's (CSA) director of cricket and his presence alone has raised the intensity. 

“Biff”, as Smith is appropriately known given his hiking frame and deep growling voice, is the most successful captain in Test history with 53 wins at the helm - from 109 matches, also a record - and built a reputation on being a hard task master.

It was Smith who first introduced the concept of ‘Protea Fire’, the often quoted tagline of South Africa’s cricket team, and no doubt the intensity that now fuels this crop of players has stemmed from his inclusion in the system.

Smith's first decision in his new role was to select his trusted deputy Mark Boucher as head coach until after the 2023 World Cup. Like Smith, Boucher cuts an intense figure and has said in the past that he develops a single-minded focus in his life whether it is devoting five years after retiring as a player to the protection of rhinos or putting his players through their drills.

^{The arrival of a new coaching and management team has raised optimism levels around South African cricket}

The one player who has used the ‘I’ word more than most is fast bowler Kagiso Rabada. With Vernon Philander announcing that he will join Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel in retirement after the series, Rabada is the undisputed spearhead of the Proteas bowling attack. 

Critics have argued that Rabada’s pace and menace - his intensity, if you will - has been down this year with inept performances in the World Cup and a recent Test tour to India proof that he has been over-bowled, causing a dip in his mojo.

But the 24-year-old tearaway has said he has rediscovered the spring in his step and is rearing to let loose.

“For me, it’s all about intensity - short, sharp training sessions and working smart, and just making sure you catch a wake-up before match day,” Rabada told journalists last week. “We’ve always had good intensity but Mark Boucher exemplifies that. He’s been the catalyst of that for us, he brings that across very strong and we respond to that. [Assistant coach] Enoch Nkwe is very intense too, you don’t have to worry about.”

Rabada was four years old the last time South Africa won a Test series against England on home soil. Du Plessis was 14. Joe Root had just turned nine. An entire generation of cricketers have grown up and matured into senior figures in their sport in an era where the Proteas have been unable to tame the visiting Three Lions.

A month ago, that record looked likely to continue. CSA had long lost the trust of the players it purported to support and the players’ union, the South Africa Cricketers’ Association (SACA), was fighting the governing body in the courts because of a proposed domestic restructure that would see 70 professional cricketers potentially lose their jobs. Adding to the morass was the gagging of five senior journalist by revoking their match-day accreditation and the ousting of former chief executive Thabang Moroe.

Inevitably, all this animosity and doubt spilled on the field where du Plessis and his team suffered one indignity after another.

A disastrous World Cup campaign, that saw the team finish seventh, was sandwiched between two humiliating Test series defeats. In February, Sri Lanka became the first Asian team to win a series in South Africa by claiming a 2-0 win and then in October, Virat Kohli and co bullied the Proteas in a 3-0 sweep in India that still did not adequately represent the gulf between the sides.

^{Vernon Philander will retire from international cricket at the end of the Test series}

Rabada topped the wicket takers’ chart the lasts time England were in South Africa - bagging 22 wickets at 21.9 from three matches - but  it was Stuart Broad’s eye-watering 6 for 17 at the Wanderers that swung the contest in a seven-wicket win at the Bull Ring.

When England won the 2004/05 series, it was another seven-wicket haul at the Wanderers - by Matthew Hoggard worth just 61 runs - that left the most telling impact across the tour. England won that encounter by 77 runs and took the series 2-1.

Short, sharp, intense performances from seam bowlers have proved the difference and both teams have powerful bowling arsenals at their disposal. Vulnerabilities with the bat are there to be exploited, especially at the top of the order where inexperienced number threes in the form of Zubayr Hamza and Joe Denly will be prized wickets at a pivotal position.

With surfaces likely to provide support for the fast men, those batters who can stand up to the intensity of the barrage could swing the contest in their side’s favour.

It has been an intense year for South Africa. The country’s economy is in a crisis that makes the events at Cricket South Africa’s board room seem like a schoolyard squabble. The national electricity supplier can’t promise to keep the lights on, the national airline is a financial black hole and confidence in the ruling African National Congress government to turn things around is low after ten years of wasteful corruption under ousted president Jacob Zuma.

“Things needed to get worse before they could get better,” du Plessis said of CSA, but he could have been speaking of the nation at large.  

Few events in South African sport stir the passions of supporters like the arrival of an English cricket team. Whether its the history of colonisation, the Kolpak exodus or the gargantuan disparity between the two currencies, there is no shortage of motivation to raise the intensity levels.

The players wearing green will not be thinking about any of those broad themes. They will be desperate to put a woeful 2019 behind them. To do so, they will need to match the intensity of their words with performances on the field.

Subscribe to The Cricketer this Christmas and receive a £20 John Lewis voucher or Alastair Cook’s autobiography. Claim your free gift here