South Africa rose to No 1 in the world Test rankings when the side had an immensely strong core consisting of the captain Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, A B de Villiers or Mark Boucher behind the stumps, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. They scored the bulk of the runs, took the majority of the wickets and held almost all of the catches.
Such a cricket team could rise above any opponent – and any adverse effects from the South African board’s policy of multi-racial transformation. The rest of the side slotted in around this hard core.
Half of those most formidable players have retired, however, and that core is no more. De Villiers and Hashim Amla are left as the two main batsmen, one saddled with wicketkeeping and the other with the Test captaincy, while their two main fast bowlers are into their thirties and ever more affected by injury.
Master blaster: AB de Villiers is South Africa's primary weapon Photo: GETTY IMAGES
This policy of transformation is thus having ever more of an impact on results – and England, young and inconsistent as they are, have every chance of sharing or even winning this four-Test series, which starts on Boxing Day in Durban.
The mission statement of Cricket South Africa specifies: “Basing our activities on fairness, which includes inclusivity and non-discrimination.” As a consequence, its target is for the national team to include a minimum of four players of colour – a term which encompasses black Africans, mixed-race people and those of Asian descent – in every match. It is not a quota; it is not mandatory; but it is a target which the South African government would like to see met whenever practicable.
In the recently concluded domestic Twenty20 franchise competition, the Ram Slam, in which Kevin Pietersen played for the losing finalists Dolphins, the target was for each 12-man squad to consist of at least six players of colour, of whom three had to be indigenous Africans.
Obviously there were pros and cons. The standard was lower, but the crowds were multiracial – far more representative of the country’s demographics than they have traditionally been. Sometimes you have to go backwards in order to go forwards, and this series may mark the time when South Africa’s Test team go backwards, before advancing to a multiracial future in which the country’s whole population has ready access to the sport and its highest levels.
Temba Bavuma is the first indigenous African batsman to play for the national team
Three of the four players of colour in South Africa’s team for the first Test will be the captain Amla; batsman Temba Bavuma, who has a dogged defence but was troubled when the West Indies fast bowlers bounced him last year, and who is the first indigenous African batsman to reach the national team (all those years of flag-waving cricket in the townships during apartheid having proved fruitless at least in this regard); and J P Duminy, who has not kicked on as a batsman since his first two sensational Tests in Australia, although his off-spin has improved.
Which leaves a fourth player to be included. It would have been Vernon Philander if he had not injured himself playing football in India, which has ruled him out of the first two Tests. So it will be either Kagiso Rabada, a 6ft 3in pace bowler, or Dane Piedt, an off-spinner. Whoever it is England do not appear to have a lot to fear.
Rabada is only 20, and well worth his place in South Africa’s one-day international team. He is skiddily quick, bats left-handed with a stylish flourish, and has a fine temperament. He relished the chance to defend 11 off the last over when India were batting in an ODI in Kanpur and did so successfully.
Kagiso Rabada may yet start against England in Durban on Boxing Day
Like the overwhelming majority of South Africa’s cricketers – now just as much as through the ages – Rabada is a product of the country’s elite schools. The son of a neurosurgeon, he attended one of the most prestigious of all, St Stithians in Johannesburg. He was a key figure in South Africa winning the Under-19 World Cup last year. He is doubtless a Test cricketer – but one in the making rather than fully formed as yet, if his record of two wickets in three Tests in India is any measure.
Piedt, 25, is an off-spinner from Cape Town who plays for Cape Cobras, the most transformed of all the franchises. He has taken 12 wickets in his two Tests, which sounds a great start, but eight came against Zimbabwe, when that enfeebled country played their last home Test. Piedt’s other four wickets came early on in South Africa’s most recent Test against India in Delhi. Again it was a promising start, but after the effect of novelty wore off, he finished with four for 170 on a pitch where India’s spinners ran amok.
He has 62 first-class wickets, whereas Simon Harmer, who he replaced, has 253 first-class wickets, and 20 in his five Tests at the respectable average of 29.
Any cricketer will feel for the young player who is not selected strictly on merit, who is exposed to the highest level too soon, and who suffers the most agonising feeling that he is letting his side down. Ultimately this project may work out miraculously for South Africa, if it becomes a truly national sport played by all communities. England, in the meantime, can ruthlessly exploit it.
Four in line to fulfil mission statement
Hashim Amla
Elegant mainstay of batting line-up for a decade. Test average of 50.64.
Temba Bavuma
Averages only 27 from his five Tests and has shown weakness against the bouncing ball.
JP Duminy
Experienced left-hander averages 32.92 with the bat. Useful off-spin has brought 36 wickets at 37 apiece.
Kagiso Rabada
Pace man has looked raw in three Tests. His two wickets each cost 55.5 runs.
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