South African sacrifice now being rewarded

With the third Under-19 Test between New Zealand and South Africa at New Plymouth in danger of being washed away, CricInfo took advantage of the opportunity to talk to South African coach Hylton Ackerman.

An aggressive and talented opening batsman, Ackerman is one of the lost generation of South African cricketers who missed the opportunity of playing Tests because of South Africa's apartheid system.

Ackerman and Clive Rice were youngsters selected in the Springbok party to tour Australia in 1971/2. The South African team of this period was developing into one of the greatest ever to play the game. Richards, Barlow, the Pollocks, Procter and Lindsay were supported by the likes of Irvine and Lance. Ali Bacher was captain.

Having trounced the Australians four-nil in South Africa 18 months before, the Springboks were looking forward to reinforcing their superiority on Aussie soil. Ackerman recalls learning about the cancellation of the tour.

"I was on a flight returning home after playing county cricket for Northamptonshire. I was tapped on the shoulder by somebody I knew. `Have you read the stop press in the paper?' he said. `Your tour's off.'"

"Players of my generation realised then that we would never play Test cricket. We knew how things were. We were just kids, like these guys playing here."

Ackerman took part in a famous protest against the effects of apartheid on sport. The scene was Newlands in Cape Town. The Rest of South Africa were playing Transvaal.

"Mike Procter bowled the first ball of the game to Barry Richards (guesting for Transvaal). He padded up to it and we all walked off. A statement was read out over the public address, saying that we wanted to play with blacks. Then we got on with the game."

The story is told in a matter-of-fact way, but to challenge the Vorster government so directly was an immensely brave act in the South Africa of the early seventies.

"Some important people didn't speak to me for years afterwards" reflects Ackerman.

He did tour Australia in 1971/2 after all. He went with the Rest of the World team that took the place of the South Africans, playing a five match series. Ackerman opened the batting with Sunil Gavaskar, heading a line-up that included the likes of Kanhai, Lloyd, Pollock and Sobers.

He does mention that he was third in the averages for the series, ahead of Pollock, Lloyd and Zaheer Abbas

Ackerman describes Sobers as the best cricketer he has ever seen.

"Look at Tests in which Sobers scored hundreds. West Indies won a very high proportion of them. Batsmen such as Boycott batted to save matches. Gary batted to win them. If he came in with the score at 350 for four he probably wouldn't perform. At 100 for four he would."

Who were the other players who he regards as greats?

"The two greatest batsmen were Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock. Gordon Greenidge opened the batting for Hampshire with Richards. Gordon was close to being a great player himself, yet he stood in awe of Barry.

"Pollock was the best player of a bad ball I ever saw. He came to speak to the young players at the Academy a little while ago. One of them asked him `how do I play a half volley on the off stump?" He said `just hit it for four.' I said to him afterwards, `Graeme, you could do that every time, but the rest of us find it a problem!'

"Bob Taylor was the best wicket-keeper I ever played with. I stood next to him at slip for the Rest of the World in Australia. At Adelaide he kept for two days on a turner to Intikhab Alam and Bishan Bedi Not only did he not let a bye through, he didn't drop a single ball."

Ackerman first became known outside South Africa when playing for the International Cavaliers in England while qualifying for Northamptonshire. The Cavaliers played games against the counties and other teams on Sunday afternoons in the middle sixties. Games were shown live on BBC TV. Crowds who appreciated the novelty of limited-overs cricket packed the grounds.

The Cavaliers consisted of some of some great names - Sobers, Cowdrey, Evans, Compton to name a few - along with emerging overseas players who were qualifying for counties, such as Clive Lloyd, John Shepherd and Keith Boyce. They played exciting cricket, with Ackerman's hard-hitting style a particular favourite of the crowds and the viewers.

He smiles at the recollection.

"You know, it was when playing for the Cavaliers that I first met people like Sobers and Lloyd, people who remain friends to this day. I still have a trophy for being Player of the Year. It has a TV aerial sticking out of the top. I won fifty pounds and that seemed a lot of money then!"

The Cavaliers had a crucial effect on the history of the game. They showed that there was a TV audience for one-day cricket. There is a short, direct connection from the Cavaliers to the establishment of the World Cup, World Series Cricket, and the profusion of ODIs today.

"Some of the young guys sometimes say, `Coach, did you ever play one-day cricket?' I tell them that if I hadn't played one-day cricket, they wouldn't be playing one-day cricket."

How did the years of isolation affect South African cricket?

"Our authorities did a great job in keeping the game alive in those years, but our kids didn't have heroes to inspire them. Players like Rice, le Roux and van der Bijl never got the chance to perform on the international stage. One of our guys asked me if Clive Rice was fast...

"Of course, players like Lloyd, Sobers, Hall and others would also have been heroes had they been seen in South Africa at their peak."

The name `H. Ackerman' does appear in the `Test Match Appearances' section of Wisden. It is Ackerman's son, Hylton junior, who played in four tests in the mid-nineties. Ackerman senior holds no bitterness that his own Test career was not allowed to get under way.

A short while later a group of his young charges sat around a table, talking enthusiastically about cricket, enjoying each other's company, being a team. They represented the full range of South Africa's rainbow nation.

As their coach looked on, perhaps he felt that his sacrifice had been rewarded.