70 not out for KZN’S touring ‘Crickets’

TOURING cricket teams have become a rare thing in the modern era of the game, but Kwazulu-natal’s own Crickets team celebrated a special milestone this weekend as they clipped one square to canter onto 70.

Established in 1947, the Crickets are a safe haven for a lot of former premier division cricketers who have hung up their competitive spikes, but are still looking to turn the arm over, or to hear willow on leather.

The success of the club is largely down to the Lambert family. Father Bill is the patron and twin brothers Iain and Dave are responsible for organising games and using their extensive network to bring together cricketers to play for the club.

Dave Lambert is the chairman, former Border and Natal batsman Craig Sugden is the captain, former Natal spinner Richard Mcglashan is chief selector and Stuart Mckenzie the sponsor.

In the early days, the Crickets would line up matches against similar teams in the Province, clashing with the likes of the Cane Rats, Grasshoppers and Willows, but nowadays, their premier fixture is against the JEO XI, a team commonly known as the Oppenheimer XI.

Renowned in Gauteng, the Oppenheimers play their matches in Randtjiesfontein on a picturesque oval. The Crickets take them on in November.

The Crickets have also seen their fair share of international duty, their last tour coming in 2013 to England where they were much too strong for some classy opposition as they came back with a 5-1 win record.

Included in that list of classy opponents was Sir Tim Rice, the Oscar winning lyricist, as well as his accompanying Earls, Counts and associated nobility.

They sparred with the Spye Park XV, run by Rob Enthoven of Nando’s UK fame, The Hampshire Hogs, cricket celebrity Mark Nicholas’s team; and The Gypseys, Lord Vestey’s team.

For their 70th celebration, a host of familiar faces took to the field starting on Friday in worryingly damp conditions. But with the beer as moist as the outfield there weres only smiles on the faces of barrel-chested South African allrounder Mike Proctor; opening bat for South Africa from the 1970s, Henry Fotheringham; cross-coder Errol Stewart; and Grant Rowley, who the great Kevin Pietersen held in higher regard than himself when he was at Maritzburg College.

A few other familiar faces that couldn’t make the weekend were Jon Kent, Dale Benkenstein and Andrew Miller – father of the Proteas’ power-hitter David.

However, the middle order bat for the Proteas will probably be glad to see his father not involved if he is still harbouring the memories of his first stint with the Crickets.

Miller junior joined Dad in playing for the Crickets back when the big hitter was only in standard nine.

Big-eyed and keen, Miller opened the batting against some of the old legends and immediately made his mark as he was peppered with some vicious short bowling by a former Natal opener.

Two sixes in the first over later, and the Crickets were onto a good thing. That was until Dad decided the youngster had had enough and called him through for an outlandish run, leaving him stranded on 69.

While some of the members playing this weekend may not see the ton crest the horizon for the Crickets, it is teams like these that should be going on to double, and triple centuries – for the good of what the game means.