RSA: Symcox Guest Speaker At Meeting Of Cricket Society Of South Africa (1 Jun 1996)

1 June 1996

South African off-spin bowler Pat Symcox was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Cricket Society of South Africa at Houghton Golf Club, Johannesburg on Tuesday May 28th.

Symcox was introduced by test umpire Cyril Mitchley who revealed that Symcox also holds provincial colours for Squash and Badminton as well as being a lawn bowler and fisherman of some repute.

The off-spinner rooms with swing bowler Fanie de Villiers when on tour, and in addition to his bowling duties is held responsible for making sure that de Villiers - who is the South African player most fined for tardiness - is on time for team meetings. He gave some amusing insights into off-field, on-tour life including the story of how the team`s bio-kineticist Paddy Upton arranged four wake up calls in the course of one night for skipper Hansie Cronje during the recent World Cup. Cronje gained revenge the next morning: Whilst dishing out anti-malaria tablets to the squad he slipped Upton two sleeping pills. The training session that followed ended with Upton being left asleep on the outfield in 40 degree heat after a "visualisation session".

One of the reasons that Symcox rooms with de Villiers is that they are of similar build and often share kit. This prompted a member of the audience to ask Pat if he`d ever thought of bowling at a livelier pace. Symcox replied that he had bowled fast medium in his youth. He also remarked that he`d be hard put to recommend slow bowling as a career because "there`s no money in it unless you bowl like this" (mimics Shane Warne`s cocked right wrist), "or, even better, like THIS" (shows us all a Paul Adams grip).

Symcox named Graeme Hick, Steve Waugh, Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammed Azharuddin as the batsmen that he personally rated. He considers Azharuddin to be very under-rated and feels that any spin bowler will be made to work harder than usual when bowling to the Indian skipper. When asked his opinion of Mark Waugh he agreed that the younger twin was a very good player but mentioned a weakness on the cover drive as being a notable chink in his armour for a spinner to exploit.

When asked if he felt that slow bowlers improved with age, Symcox agreed but opined that this trend was changing due to the sheer volume of games played in the modern era. He used as his example Shane Warne, just 26 and with an uncomplicated action but already battling finger injuries and arthritis.

Asked about the future of South African cricket he named the three recent test debutantes Kallis, Adams and Pollock as being stars of the very near future. He made the interesting point that it may be Adams who decides who the long term successor to David Richardson may be.

Symcox feels that Adams will continue to improve his craft and that as he becomes more important to the team it could well be the man who keeps wicket to his googlies and chinamen at provincial level, Paul Kirsten, who will become Richardson`s heir apparent and eventual successor.

Finally, Symcox was asked about the potentially arduous 1996/7 season, with nine test matches and as many as 25 one day internationals, that faces the South African team. He assured us that the national team loves to play cricket and considers it a great privilege to represent their country. "As long as we keep those two thoughts foremost in our minds" he said, "we cannot become stale or jaded".