DANIEL GALLAN IN PORT ELIZABETH: There are enclaves of menace if you know where to look and inside St George's Park, the venue for the third Test between England and South Africa, the atmosphere will be anything but welcoming for Joe Root's men
You can tell a lot about a city by its nickname.
Wroclaw in Poland is known as the City of a Hundred Bridges... because it has 100 bridges. Some are big and so use this self-aggrandising adjective to reinforce their apparent importance. New York is the Big Apple, London is the Big Smoke, Bangkok is the Big Mango.
Detroit’s moniker, the Motor City, is a throwback to its former glory and now reads as a sad reminder of what it once was.
Wealth inequality and sprawling slums do not diminish the aspirations of citizens of Mumbai, who imagine what tomorrow might bring in the City of Dreams.
Port Elizabeth on South Africa’s east coast has no grand illusions of its past, present or future. It does not possess 100 bridges and, with a population of just over a million, it can’t boast of its size. But a city must have a nickname and so the good folk of Port Elizabeth have taken to calling their home the Friendly City.
This accurately reflects the sweet disposition of most who reside on the jut of land that pokes into the Indian Ocean, where strangers greet you on your morning run and time keeps pace with the gentle lapping of the waves.
Don’t be fooled.
There are enclaves of menace if you know where to look and inside St George’s Park, the venue for the third Test between England and South Africa, the atmosphere will be anything but welcoming for Joe Root’s men.
Port Elizabeth hosts the third Test between South Africa and England
There is no love lost between these two proud sporting nations whenever they tangle on manicured fields. Old scars have yet to fully heal and the insecurities and guilt around empire, colonisation, economic disparity and patriotism continue to tangle the narrative, even as we begin our stroll through 2020.
These historic themes are not the only pressure points that players and fans will look to prod. Extra animosity has been sewn into the discourse.
Jos Buttler’s expletive-laden snap at Vernon Philander during the closing scenes of Cape Town’s epic have provided an excuse for the Friendly City to turn nasty.
Twitter is by no means an accurate barometer of the general public’s mood but some comments have read like the opening monologue of a Viking chieftain, rallying his troops before battle.
There has been the promise of retribution, the anticipation of Kagsio Rabada snorters and the reminder that South Africa beat England to lift the Rugby World Cup.
And one talking point has been no laughing matter.
“Y’all remember when Port Elizabeth got Sonny Bill Williams masks to abuse David Warner?” one tweeter asked. “I hope they can’t find things about Jos Buttler.”
SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
The misogyny that fuelled those masks was downplayed at the time and still illicit guffaws from knuckle-dragging thugs. They were used to antagonise Warner by targeting his wife, Candice, for the crime have having had a relationship with another man before she met her husband.
In truth, it was a small section of fans who resorted to this most crass form of humour, though they escaped widespread condemnation. Two Cricket South Africa employees stupidly posed with the mask-wearers and lost their jobs. Only Warner will know what drove him to convince young Cameron Bancroft to take a piece of sandpaper on a cricket field later in the series, but one must assume the animosity garnered had clouded his judgement.
Warner is not Buttler. One is a pugnacious character who has been scrapping ever since he arrived on the international scene; the other is a softly spoken, privately educated product of England’s curated youth structures.
Not that South Africans, or the 11 men elected to represent them, will worry about such small differences. In a country that once legally saw the world in black and white terms, there is little space for nuance. Fans will not accept Buttler’s assertion that his outburst was an act conducted in “the heat of the moment”. It has been interpreted as a battle cry. A thunderous response is expected.
“It definitely does get the blood flowing,” said Anrich Nortje, a man with an appetite for the short stuff capable of cranking it past 90mph. “That was not something you can say, especially on a stump mic. Once we identify a moment we will try rev it up.”
That does not necessarily mean what you think it means, and the Proteas fast men would do well not to let their desire for justice get in the way of sound logic.
St George’s Park is the least South African of all pitches used for Test cricket in the country. Compared to the seaming paradise of Newlands or the electric deck of the Wanderers, this is a dead sponge where all the menace of even the most vicious bouncer is absorbed and dissipated in the muggy air.
To be effective you have to be disciplined. Pace will still count as controlled fury sent down from a towering height and exploding from a probing length will trouble any batter. In this stadium where few see the need for change and the brass band plays the same five songs into oblivion, that probing length has a more English locale.
“You have to try and be fuller, hit your area more consistently,” Nortje said, who knows this strip better than most having grown up 22 miles to the north and who once took nine wickets in a first-class match here.
“It is generally slower and lower. It’s different. Upcountry [in Johannesburg and Centurion] the ball flies into the keepers hands above his head. But it will still be a good pitch.”
Theories abound concerning the impact of the weather. Old timers will tell you an easterly breeze from over the scoreboard means it’s good for bowling. When it comes from the west you want to be holding a bat in your hand.
Cricket hardly needs an excuse to pontificate about the weather. This is a game where so little is within your control and talk of the wind, rain and sun adds to the whimsy. There is romance in the happenstance, even if it is overblown.
Like the weather, history is another one of cricket’s obsessions and on that front England hold the upper hand. The first Test between the countries was played in Port Elizabeth in 1889. Sir Aubrey Smith captained England in his only Test and starred in a low-scoring, eight-wicket triumph that spanned just two days.
England have continued to boss proceedings in these parts. A record of four wins, three draws and just the one defeat - in 1957 - points to a one-sided contest. If Root can extend that unbeaten run stretching almost 63 years, he will return home with the Basil D’Oliveira Trophy.
To do so, his team will have to contend with the Friendly City’s nasty side, lead by a local who has promised vengeance.
Subscribe to The Cricketer for exclusive content every day: The inside track on England's Test tour with George Dobell in Pakistan, award-winning analysis, breaking news and interviews and the only place for in-depth county coverage all year round. Plus: An ad-free app experience at your fingertips. Subscribe to thecricketer.com today for just £1.
Welcome to www.thecricketer.com - the online home of the world’s oldest cricket magazine. Breaking news, interviews, opinion and cricket goodness from every corner of our beautiful sport, from village green to national arena.