Cricket World Cup: South Africa's scattered rainbow

here may be 14 national teams participating in the ongoing World Cup, but it would not be wrong to say that there are two South African sides present, as there are no less than 11 South Africa-born players wearing colours other than the Protea-green in this tournament.

The World Cup is considered as the pinnacle of a sport. So playing in it, leave alone winning it, is something every player dreams of. Therefore, even though national pride plays a big part in making the competition what it is, personal ambition of the players is also a vital ingredient of the spectacle.

Maybe, that is why a number of players in the history of sports have represented countries other than those where they were born — some because they were not good enough to get into their home country’s team and some moved to another country during their childhood, and a few others for political reasons. Sport, after all, transcends all racial, cultural and national boundaries.

In football, Jack Charlton, who was a part of the England football team that won the 1966 World Cup, brew up a controversy as the manager of the Republic of Ireland, by using what was called the ‘Granny Rule’ (players who’s grandparents were Irish) to select almost an entire team of players, who were mostly England and Scotland-born with Irish ancestry for the 1990 World Cup.

In cricket, however, a number of players, most of them from South Africa, have played in the World Cup for countries other than the one they were born in, taking advantage of their ancestry or other qualifications, much before Charlton’s ‘Irish’ team of 1990.

In the inaugural cricket World Cup in 1975, South Africa-born Tony Greig represented England. South Africa, of course, was banned from playing any kind of cricket because of their racist apartheid regime. Greig was not the first South African player to play for England. In the late 60s and early 70s, Basil D’Oliveira played Tests for England as he could not be allowed to play for South Africa because he was coloured.

Greig was followed by Allan Lamb and Robin Smith as South Africa-born cricketers playing for England in the World Cup, the former playing in the 1983, 1987 and 1992 editions and the latter in 1992 and 1996. And there was of course Kepler Wessels, who played for Australia in the 1983 chapter and returned to South Africa post-apartheid to lead them in their first World Cup in 1992.

The present England squad has four players who were born in the Rainbow Nation — Andrew Strauss, Matt Prior, Jonathon Trott, and Kevin Pietersen. Strauss and Prior migrated to England with their family during their childhood and are products of county cricket, whereas Trott and Pietersen lived in South Africa till they started playing in the South African domestic system before going on to represent England.

Trott holds a British passport, so he was not considered an overseas player. However, Pietersen had to complete a four-year qualifying period in county cricket before representing England. Ironically, Pietersen decided to shift base to England from KwaZulu-Natal as a protest against the racial-quota system that ensured a level of participation from the non-white communities, a complete turnaround from the time of
D’Oliveira.

The one team that has benefited the most this World Cup by South Africans looking abroad for international representation, is The Netherlands. Five players, Wesley Barresi, Ryan Neil ten Doeschate, Bernardus Pieters Loots, Bradley Peter Kruger, Eric Stefan Szwarczynski were all born in South Africa but are wearing the Oranje, taking advantage of their Dutch ancestry. Ireland duo Andre Botha and Albert van der Merwe complete the South African ‘foreign’ XI in this edition of the World Cup in the subcontinent.