FAST COMPANY
Why Kagiso Rabada’s red hot
● Kagiso Rabada’s star could not be in a higher orbit. The world isn’t so much at his feet as it is in the distance, far, far below.
His talents are seen as a gift from the cricketing gods, for which he is fêted and fawned over.
Sponsors clamour to be touched by the glow of his smile.
In just the past two weeks, two world brands trumpeted their involvement with the national team fast bowler.
Rabada’s rise to the top of the sport has come at breakneck speed. If it all seems a blur, his life in the fast lane gained even more traction last week when he was presented with the keys to a Nissan 370Z, a sporty little number with a Monica Seles grunt.
Earlier this week he became the first South African cricketer to get his own Instagram GIFs. They feature Rabada in a variety of poses to mirror whatever emotion the chooser feels best encapsulates the moment.
The man of the moment, however, insists he lives for the one that he’s in.
“It is important to be humble,” he said after he was presented with his vehicle at Zwartkops Raceway last week. “Humble in a way you know where you come from, recognising your family. All the fame is fake. It’s actually fake. Personally, I don’t like being involved in fake business.
“Being humble is just sticking to your roots. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the things that life brings you. It doesn’t mean when people bring you blessings that you shouldn’t take them. People are acknowledging you.
“But always remember where you came from and who you are.”
A meteoric rise
Rabada has had much coming his way in the past while. Could he still be the same bloke who made his Test debut in Mohali, India, in November 2015?
“Yes, I think so,” he nods with the kind of confidence that suggests no additional interrogation on the subject is required.
For a 23-year-old, he is much decorated. Within a year of finishing school, (at St Stithians College, Joburg), he’d made his one-day international (ODI) debut for SA, taking a hat trick in the process. His Test debut followed a year later.
By January 2018, he was topping the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) chart as the leading bowler in ODIs. He holds the same position at Test level.
Last July, he became the youngest bowler to take 150 Test wickets, en route to claiming the most Test scalps for the year.
You’d think all those gongs would count for something at home. But his brain-surgeon father and lawyer mom keep him grounded.
“At home it doesn’t mean anything,” says the man known mostly as KG, about his celebrity status.
“I’m just their kid. Sometimes I get lectures, but I’m also getting older. I won’t get as many. They won’t overly praise me. They’ll say, ‘Well done. That’s good.’
“They continue to guide me. It’s always just another day at home. No fuss. My family is really proud of me. That’s where I can let myself go, when I’m with my family and extended family.
“It’s not people wanting to be around you because of your success.”
Spending time with those close to him clearly matters. So much of his growing up over the past four years has happened in front of our eyes. Cricket, with its long, drawn-out days, puts that reality into sharp focus.
Rabada has had to take it in his stride. There is a matter-of-factness about him that may seem blunt but which serves the purpose of insulating him.
He’s at times engaging; on other occasions cagey.
At just 23 he has achieved a lot. His responsibility within SA’s bowling attack has increasingly taken on wider dimensions.
He shrugs. It’s just part of the job, part of growing up. “It is just a natural progression. The older you get the more of a senior you are going to be. It is something I will take in my stride.”
He relishes the pressure that comes with the job. “That’s why we play. The goal is to come out on top. The test is on you to come out on top. If you don’t, make sure you come out on top the next time.”
Equally, he refuses to be weighed down by the mantle of “highest-ranked Test bowler”.
“When you are playing, that is irrelevant. It really is. You can’t even be thinking about that.”
Being cool about everyday pressures is one thing, but when the ICC Cricket World Cup comes around South Africans have cause to pause. Our history of calamitous failure at the global showpiece hangs like an albatross around the national team’s collective neck. This year, national coach Ottis Gibson’s future is inextricably linked to whether the team wins the trophy or not.
“I feel the World Cup is do or die,” is how Rabada put it. “It is something for which you really need to be in the moment. You can’t dwell on what has happened. Although you also need to stay calm.”
This year’s World Cup, which starts in England in May, may be his first but Rabada has some experience representing the national team at an ICC event.
“I’ve played in a T20 World Cup before so I sort of know what it’s like. My approach would be to stay in the moment and adapt. That’s key.”
There have been times when that clarity of thought has escaped the tyro. His shoulder brush with Australian captain Steve Smith in Port Elizabeth last year rubbed some, including the ICC, the wrong way. It didn’t seem much of an infraction but Rabada was banned for the rest of the series. Amid a huge public outcry, however, he was reinstated.
His boisterous celebrations at the Wanderers after the Test series wrapped up suggested a man who’d found a different way of letting the Australians know how he felt.
“I’ve learnt that you need to channel the passion,” said the player, who is more scrutinised than most. “When I’m on the field I get into a different mode. A competitive mode.
“I don’t think about it too much. It happens spontaneously. I’ve learnt to channel my passion and aggression. Otherwise I’m not going to play,” he pointedly reminded us.
Passionate as he is, the sport doesn’t consume him. “I have found a couple of interests. I like relaxing with friends. I think I’m probably an extrovert to the people I really get along with and I’m comfortable with. I like to be extroverted in front of those people. They can see the real me.”
He likes music, deejaying, mixing and “fiddling around making my own beats”.
“I got into golf a bit and I like to read. Read about different topics.”
The Joburger has also developed a love for the beach. “The Caribbean was fun,” he said with a mischievous smile. He is also partial to a hookah pipe and the odd glass of red.
With so much of his career ahead of him, Rabada is happy to focus season by season.
“You can’t think too far ahead. I think, though, that it is important to know yourself — not as a cricketer but as an individual. You can find other interests and do what you please.
“If I wasn’t a professional cricketer I’d probably be at varsity doing a degree. When I left school I thought of doing law. I actually don’t even know now. Maybe I’d be doing another sport.
“I love rugby [he played centre], soccer as well. In athletics I wasn’t good enough. Well, it happened way too late.”
Tough at the top
He may seem at the top of his craft but Rabada knows staying there is going to require even greater effort. He seems prepared for this.
“I always feel you can get better,” he said. “This is a game that needs figuring out. Even if you are at the top of your craft, you still need to figure it out. You can still progress, like improving your ability to read the game differently.
“I guess to mentally improve, as well as critical thinking, you don’t want to overthink, you want to get a balance of how to approach situations.
“I don’t thrive on someone being scared. It wakes me up when someone tries to attack me. When a batsman attacks you, it is always unsettling. It wakes you up. You have to learn how to deal with those situations. Your job is to get him out. It doesn’t matter
I’ve learnt to channel my passion and aggression. Otherwise I’m not going to play
what he’s thinking. You just have to get him out or contain him.”
He greatly admires former Pakistan quicks Wasim Akram and Mohammad Asif, as well as Mohammad Amir for their skill, but holds the late West Indies paceman Malcolm Marshall in highest regard for his speed. “I’ve watched his clips. He was an amazing bowler. He was very accurate, too.”
You don’t get the sense that Rabada dwells on the game too much. He has legitimate distractions. His new car will take some getting used to.
“I think my driving habits have always been the same. I’ve always liked speed. I’ve driven some fast cars as well.
“For me to drive this every day is quite good. I can’t speed on the public roads but I can bring it to the track. It could be a new hobby of mine.
“I was speaking to one of the professional racers and he showed me how to be quick on the angles and into corners.
“I’ve learnt that already. I think I’m hooked.”