Fanie's new ambassadorial role (21 Mar 1998)

21 March 1998

Fanie's new ambassadorial role

Trevor Chesterfield

Suddenly it was over: Shoiab Ahktar, nursing a touch of bruised pride along with the hint of a flu bug as well, was comprehensively yorked by Fanie de Villiers at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth on March 10.

It was all part of the fairy tale ending; no final appearance at SuperSport Centurion against Western Province a few days later. Rather, he indicated to Keith Medlycott, the retiring coach and manager, give a couple of the younger players a chance to show what they can do.

After all, what else was there to prove?

Especially in a SuperSport Series match where his competitive streak and out-swing were missed in a Northerns bowling attack which became progressively tired on a pitch that yielded little on the third day and fourth morning.

Fanie did what he wanted to do, spend time with his family; the glory days were behind him, the present is what counted. After that came his new role in the game: ambassador at large for the United Cricket Board; a mere matter of packing the bags again and heading for Cape Town, which included a courtesy call at Newlands where South Africa and Sri Lanka trained for the first Test of the two-match series.

It is all a matter of spreading the gospel of the game within South Africa over the next six years ("They need a real dutchman to do this job," he grinned). It means going to the schools, it means taking the game to the non-converted as well as talking to the converted; winning over youngers from not only the disadvantaged areas.

"My message is that cricket is not just about talent but attitude as well and heart. There are plenty who have talent but only those with a courage (and hunger) and a desire who will make it," he added.

Which encapsulates the story of his own career.

He has visited schools in the Northern Province, North West and is soon to visit a few in Gauteng.

Yet, when he thought about the start to his own provincial career, just who was that oke who became the first of his 427 first-class and Test wickets? Daryl Scott. No one remembers him now. He was type-cast as an all-rounder, batting at four for Natal B At Berea Park and bowling off-spin; had made a century on debut. As the Natal B visitors chased quick runs at Berea Park that Monday morning on October 28, 1985 Scott soon edged an out-swinger to wicketkeeper Steve Vercuiel.

Also playing that B Section (Bowl) match was Andrew Hudson. He scored tidy 71 that day before becoming Vinnge Fanie's fourth of five second innings victims. Hudders doesn't remember too much about that game: so long ago, you know.

Yet, after watching him take his first and last first-class wickets, spread across 12 summers the abiding memory of those first two or three seasons is still of Fanie doing his best to convince Lee Barnard, then Northerns captain, and John Reid, the coach and former New Zealand captain, that he could really bowl.

After all Northerns had Gerbrand Grobler, left-arm and very fast at times: Grey College and South African Schools, the right credentials and pedigree. Fanie had none of those. Volksskool where . . ? Heidelberg? Just who have they ever produced?

"Fanie de Villiers," they now proudly tell you in that part of the country where the tow-head skraal kind van die veld was once tutored in some skills of fast bowling by Bennie Venter.

Fast bowlers are usually quicker to mature than are batsmen and spinners and for young Fanie the thought of a wind at his back and bowling down hill was a dream. Even in the Wanderers bullring would be nice. When his career began the first sod had barely been turned at what is now SuperSport Centurion.

Yet what most people, with barely an interest in the game, remember about Fanie is his spell at the Sydney Cricket Ground on a hot January morning in 1994. Six for 43 are figures lettered in gold on the honours board. They forget the injury and suffering it took to get there. They also forget, with Allan Donald injured, how he carried the South African attack most of the 1994/95 season. Chewing pain killers like liquorice all sorts.

"Just one more over, Fanie," Hansie Cronje would plead.

For him his greatest moment was the innings of 68 against Pakistan at the Wanderers.

"After all, bowlers enjoy the moments we have as batsmen," he laughed when he announced his retirement. "Yes, the wickets do count, but scoring big runs is special . . . I still remember Salim Malik's eyes when I swept that four."

Man of the match at Sydney in that historic victory, and man of the match at the Wanderers against Pakistan. And remember, too Ahmedabad, his recipe for that innings was "Defend, defend, defend, sweep . . . Leave, leave . . . sweep and defend again."

This was after the top and middle-order had all but expired in a heap of batting rubble, partly brought about by some umpiring decisions which still raise more than the grey crusty eyebrow of his former coach and now ICC match referee John Reid.

Illness and a freak lawn mower accident to his right hand put him out for most of the second half of the 1996/97 season; yet he smiled broadly in Durban days after arriving back from India. Full of flu and not really fit to play he was part of the side which won Northerns their first major trophy.

The verdict was simple: Vinnige Fanie was finished; a familiar story with a repetitive theme which had first surfaced in 1983, and 1990 and 1995 and yet again . . . He was becoming the oldest comeback kid on the block; each step became a new paragraph in the story. His motto of Sydney where he told a press conference, "South Africans never give up" seemed to have been scripted for his personal use.

The final wicket of his career: Shoiab. Now, there is a name to remember. "Hansie came across to me and said it was my last chance to one last test wicket," he reflected. "I then bowled the best yorker I think I have ever bowled. Later, it became very emotional . . . and a couple of tears . . ."

His parents, Braam and Hanna, had watched him with Judy; and the night before, a personal farewell message from Nelson Mandela. Not at all a bad ending to a playing career which had started in a Denysville primary school 26 years before.

And not a bad begining, either, in his new career. He has a special feeling for youngsters. He knows what it is like to be shunned . . . Before the fame he had similar experiences. Now his job is to ease the way for the embryo Vinnige Fanies who also have a dream.

Trevor Chesterfield Cricket writer Pretoria News tche@ptn.independent.co.za