Kapil, Kepler, Mandela, Mugabe: The first SA tour
In 1992 when South Africa was readmitted to the ICC, a warning was stamped on Indian passports: “Not valid for travel to Israel and South Africa.”
The cricket team still toured SA because India wanted to be the first team to visit and a grateful SA wanted to host a non-white team.
I was manager of the team led by Md Azharuddin which included seniors Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri and rising stars Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath. It was a leap in the dark, a game of teen patti played blind. Nothing was known about SA’s cricket, grounds, pitches or players. Ravi knew some from county cricket but general awareness was so low one player asked whether Kepler Wessels batted left handed.
Our team was undercooked. Ajit Wadekar was recalled from retirement and appointed coach. There was no support staff. The only pre tour preparation was a short hop in Harare to play Zimbabwe’s inaugural Test where the start was delayed due to the late arrival of President Robert Mugabe whose official residence was next door to the Harare Cricket Club. This happy occasion almost became a nightmare as India narrowly avoided a follow on against a side comprising mostly of unknowns and nobodies.
Surprisingly, the SA tour started without a formal signoff on the Playing Conditions, something completely unthinkable today. All bilateral tours are governed by an agreement that lists the minutest details of commercial and cricket matters. But on the ‘92 tour it wasn’t done and I was told by BCCI to close the matter with then SA cricket chief Ali Bacher. I dragged vice-captain Ravi to the meeting where Ali wanted TV cameras to decide line calls, a system they had successfully trialed in domestic cricket. Neither Ravi nor I had clear views on this and we agreed, only to find out the significance of this game-changing innovation in a telling manner in the first Test: Tendulkar became Test cricket’s first TV victim—caught short by the camera from a direct hit by Jonty Rhodes.
Kapil was Indian cricket’s top star but he had a modest tour except for a spectacular performance in the third Test at Port Elizabeth. In the second innings India was a miserable 27/5, then 31/6 before Paaji, the number 7, launched an astonishing counterattack. In an innings of extraordinary daring and defiance he made 129 in a team total of 215 (next highest, 17). This stunning feat was eclipsed by controversy when Kapil ran out Peter Kirsten at the non-striker’s end after warning him twice earlier. This triggered a series of unpleasant events with Wessels hitting Kapil on the ankle with his bat while taking a run. An incensed Kapil was certain Wessels hit him on purpose.
I lodged a complaint based on Kapil’s version and handed it to match referee Clive Lloyd who looked as if I had handed him a live grenade. During the inquiry he struggled to reconcile the conflicting arguments before him. Kapil presented his version forcefully, convinced Wessels acted with deliberate intent. Wessels refuted the charge with a straight face, claiming it happened in the normal run of play.
The enquiry rested on TV footage as evidence but the broadcaster declined to supply the relevant match recording, claiming it was inadvertently deleted. This convinced nobody and only strengthened the belief that the footage was deliberately suppressed to hide the inconvenient truth about Wessels.
The tour sadly ended Shastri’s career following a knee injury which flared up with a ligament tear. A few months after the tour, Ravi retired from all cricket, only 31. He transitioned from the dressing room to the commentary box and his new career took off, well, like a tracer bullet!
From a cricket standpoint, this was not a tour India will remember like 1971 or 1983. India lost the Tests (0-1) and the One Dayers (2-5) but stats don’t reveal that SA cricket, despite twenty years of isolation and lockdown, had great infrastructure, tough players with a professional attitude and forwardlooking cricket administrators.
India’s performance disappointed fans who hoped the team would vanquish the hosts to shatter the repulsive white supremacy theory. Unfortunately, that did not happen and once, after a loss in Durban, the players faced angry fans who expressed their feelings freely.
The high point of the tour was a meeting with Nelson Mandela where he radiated warmth and goodness. We looked at him, speechless with awe. My treasured possession from the tour is a photograph with him, signed: To Emrit, Mandela.