The smiling assailant

My heroes were obviously cricketers because that was my sport from a young age. One of them was Roy McLean, who played for Natal, the same province as me. He was an attacking player - the South African equivalent of Denis Compton or Keith Miller. What attracted me most was his aggression, and the fact that though he was not too consistent, he always seemed to have a smile on his face.

It was a great thrill when I had the opportunity to play with him for Natal at the end of his career and the start of mine - though he was obviously well past his best then.

I never told him that he was my hero. That was my way of expressing respect; times were different then. For instance, I used to call Jackie McGlew, my captain in my first two years and another of my favourites, Mr McGlew. Those were the days when the government didn't want the world to see what was happening in South Africa; television came in very late, around the 1970s. You could only hear the game on radio or see it live. We used to get time off from school to watch the cricket at grounds and I was lucky to witness one of McLean's best innings - his brilliant 100 against Peter May's England at Durban in 1956-57 - that way.

I consider myself lucky to have shared a dressing room with a man I had always liked watching. It was an honour to play alongside him.