Zulu's loss much greater (19 June 1999)

19 June 1999

Zulu's loss much greater

Pretoria News

LONDON: Zulu Klusener did not just lose the chance to play in this year's World Cup final as a result of that horrendous mix-up with Allan Donald in Thursday's dusk shootout; it almost certainly also cost him the title he so richly deserves. Run an opinion panel through the international media over who should be named Man of the Tournament and you are going to find an almost unanimous vote in favour of the unassuming KwaZulu-Natal allrounder

He has captured the imagination of Press and public and given life and drama to a tournament that started in such drab and uninspiring fashion thanks to the total lack of any concerted marketing or promotional campaign by its organisers

It has taken the likes of Klusener and Pakistan's Rawalpindi Express (Shoaib Akhtar) to get this tournament going with the help of the foreign fans from Asia, Africa and Australasia.

Klusener won four Man of the Match awards and it could so easily have been a fifth, but for one tragic moment at Edgbaston. He made 281 runs (two dismissals) for an average of 140,5, took the second most wickets (17), had the second highest strike rate for both batting and bowling and hit more sixes than anybody else.

Not surprisingly he also has the highest individual score for a No 9 batsman.

But such is the nature of the world that, when you lose, you lose out as well.

The Player of the Tournament is almost certain to be somebody involved in tomorrow's final. The South Africans will not be at Lord's tomorrow (they arrive back in South Africa at 10 in the morning), but there will at least be the consolation of knowing that they would have several contenders for that mythical World XI.

Klusener is an automatic choice, as is Jacques Kallis, who might have pipped Klusener for the Man of the Match award against Australia had South Africa won.

Kallis did not always get the credit at this World Cup to which he was entitled. This applied particularly to the way he got South Africa out of the mire against Pakistan and again against Australia. It was his bad luck that the world was engulfed by Zulu fever but Klusener could never have done what he did had he had to bring South Africa home from the 25th over rather than the 37th as was the case against Pakistan and the 45th against Australia.

Of the other South Africans, Jonty Rhodes and Allan Donald confirmed their standings as world leaders in the disciplines for which they are world-renowned.