One ODI not too many, Durban seeks more action
DURBAN: On Monday morning, the practice area at the Kingsmead saw the home team Dolphins in a practice session, and with leftarm spinner Keshav Maharaj rolling his arm over.
Till a day back, he was part of the Proteas Test squad. In Durban, a city heavily inhabited by South Asian expats, he is a star attraction.
Maharaj and Hashim Amla, though, are the only Indian-origin players to have played a significant number of Tests for the Proteas since readmission.
Both belong to Durban, known as the city with most Indians outside an Indian city. Maharaj’s forefathers docked here in 1874, having arrived from India as indentured labourers.
There have been other Test players like Imraan Khan, who too came from this city, but disappeared after playing a Test or so.
Maharaj taking up spin or Amla imparting plenty of wrist in his strokes was a natural corollary. “You see, we always had Indian cricketers or Asian cricketers as heroes,” says Professor Ashwin Desai, a chronicler of cricket in Kwazulu Natal province.
“The reason was that there was no connect with white cricketers due to Apartheid. So we had to look at players from our motherland.”
It was no surprise that the first international South Africa hosted in 1992 was given to Durban as the hosts played India.
There is a plaque of captains inside the Kingsmead Stadium commemorating that “Friendship Series’.
Durban became a regular fixture since then, hosting a Test and at least an ODI every time India toured these shores barring 2001-02.
Durbanites, however, will see just one game on this tour – the first ODI on February 1. This despite the tour having 12 internationals with Centurion getting four and Johannesburg and Cape Town three each.
“The anecdotal reason given was that a Test against England, one-and-a-half years back did not pull enough crowds. It was a lame excuse, because with India you guarantee crowds,” says Desai.
“Frankly speaking, it has been a public relations disaster between the Indian and South African boards. One of the quid pros was to have a Test featuring India in Durban. My father and I had been waiting for it.”
Yahya Godil, who runs a sports equipment business here, had ordered T-shirts and merchandise from India. However, when his son, an MS Dhoni fan, told him that India will play one game, he had to cancel the order. “One ODI isn’t enough,” he said.
However, the official version is that Cricket South Africa follows a rotation policy and this wasn’t Durban’s turn.
Durban’s turn though isn’t far away – it hosts an Australia Test in March which Professor Logan Naidoo, another chronicler of the province’s cricket, says could have been exchanged. “Durban wants to see India, Pakistan. It has less interest in Australia. But no thought was given to it.”
The ODI has, however, seen an interest. Faeez Jaffer, president of Kwazulu Natal Cricket Union said the corporate boxes were sold out a while back and that there has been huge interest for tickets as well.
The capacity may just be 16,000-17,000 but as Naidoo puts it, “there’ll be more people wanting to get in”.