Clayton Murzello: Nine not fine and that's a shame

SA spinner Keshav Maharaj looks up in gratitude after claiming his ninth Sri Lankan wicket during the second Test in Colombo on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images

Don't worry about it, Allan. These guys (captain Kepler Wessels and coach Mike Procter) don't know what they are doing." Fast bowler Donald would get this sort of a response from his pal Omar Henry each time Henry didn't make the South Africa playing XI in the early years of their 1991 readmission into international cricket.

Spinner Henry was the first non-white cricketer to play for his country. Three Tests and three one-day international games was all he got, despite claiming more than 400 first-class wickets. He went on to become South Africa's national selection panel chief in 2002.

Last weekend, Keshav Maharaj, like Henry, a left-arm spinner, claimed nine wickets in an innings against Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo. His 9 for 129 went down in the record books as the best analysis by a touring bowler in Sri Lanka, but South Africa still ended up losing.

Maharaj's show pleased Henry, but he was distressed about the overall attitude to his beloved craft. While speaking to me the other day, he was astounded that Faf du Plessis' line-up in the recently-concluded Colombo Test had just one specialist spinner. He was also convinced that South Africa's selectorial blunders earned Sri Lanka the bragging rights for their 2-0 series win and not because of some superlative play by the host nation.

Henry's worries for South Africa are not restricted to the Test match front. It is on the domestic cricket scene back home where he feels there are not enough opportunities for spinners to display their skills, which in turn gives rise to a situation where batsmen miss out on an opportunity to show what they can do while combating good spinners.

From the cricket enthusiast's point of view, it was sad to see a bowler ending up on the losing side despite getting nine wickets in an innings. Of the 17 bowlers who have claimed that many in an innings in Test cricket history (including Maharaj and excluding Jim Laker and Anil Kumble's all-10 feats), only four bowlers ended up on the losing side. They are Maharaj himself, Indians Subhash Gupte, Kapil Dev and West Indies' Jack Noreiga.

Gupte claimed 9 for 102 against Gerry Alexander's West Indians at Kanpur's Green Park on Day One of the second Test in 1958. The tourists' line-up which included batting greats like Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai and Conrad Hunte were bowled out for 222.

Yet, India succumbed to a 203-run loss. But Gupte certainly made an impression on Sobers. No spin bowler for Sobers is better than Gupte and that includes arguably the greatest of them all - Shane Warne. Bishan Singh Bedi has been quoted as saying that he listened to the radio commentary while Gupte claimed his nine at Kanpur, a spell that inspired him to be a spin bowler. And the late Gupte's India teammates reckoned he truly had the West Indies at his command that wintry day in Kanpur.

Kanhai, who was dismissed by Gupte in both innings at Kanpur, recalled in his book, Blasting for Runs, how Gupte greeted him at the tea interval with the words, "Hello rabbit." It caused some laughter but Kanhai was fuming. That comment was enough to open Kanhai's determination tap. In the next Test at Kolkata, Kanhai blasted 256. According to the Guyanese, Dr Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India presented him with a stuffed tiger's head in appreciation of a fine innings. The tiger's head made for good viewing at Kanhai's original home in Guyana, but mastering Gupte was his "real prize."

In 1971, another India v West Indies clash witnessed a nine-wicket haul. This time it was Jack Noreiga, an ageing off-spinner who made an impression at Trinidad in the second Test of that series. Noreiga was called Jack the Ripper and sent back every Indian batsman in the first innings, save opener Ashok Mankad.

But India went on to win the game - their very first Test victory in the Caribbean - thanks to the batting efforts of debutant Sunil Gavaskar and the spin of EAS Prasanna, Bedi, S Venkataraghavan and Salim Durani.

A dozen years later, Kapil Dev claimed nine in West Indies' second innings in the 1983 Ahmedabad Test. His 9 for 83 was an epic spell in which he bowled non-stop for 30.3 overs. The bowler who claimed the one wicket was BS Sandhu, one of the four Sikhs in India's squad that included himself, debutant NS Sidhu, spinner Maninder Singh and reserve Gurusharan Singh. India were soundly beaten on a poor pitch.

It will take a while for Maharaj, 28, to recover from the pain of his nine-wicket show going in vain at Colombo. While he's a big-hearted spinner, he'd do with some serious spin support from the other end. Meanwhile, Henry, 66, may need to do the young man a favour and shout from the roof tops, "You guys still don't know what you are doing."

mid-day's group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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