A Very Different School by Peter Pollock

Sadly I had to pay tribute to his grave rather than have dinner with him.” I wanted to bowl on the wickets he bowled on, to meet the people he spent time with and to see where he grew up. “I was desperately keen to see his resting place in Barbados. Although Marshall died before the tour, his influence was crucial. Perhaps Pollock’s finest achievement as captain of South Africa was to secure a 2-1 series victory on their first full tour of the West Indies in 2000-01. “Everything I’ve learned about bowling since then has just been a refinement of something he taught me.” “He was my mentor,” Pollock says with deep affection. The season after his debut, in 1992-93, Natal signed Malcolm Marshall as overseas professional.

The truth is, however, that while he was being taken seriously, no one spoke of him as an international prospect. Was there really room for three Pollocks in South African first-class cricket? The answer was no, and as Shaun’s career quickly took off with a Natal B debut as a schoolboy, followed by a First XI call-up the next year, his cousins battled to make a lasting impact with Transvaal and Easterns.Ī medium-pacer with an upright action that earned him bags of wickets on Kingsmead’s green, grassy pitches, as well as an uncanny ability to find the meat of the bat immediately in the middle order, Shaun was regarded as very, very useful. Graeme had two sons of his own, Anthony and Andrew, and all three boys embarked on careers together. The young Shaun shouldn’t have had a chance, especially with a shock of red hair making him stand out even further. His uncle Graeme was one of the greatest batsmen ever, and his father Peter was one of South Africa’s finest fast bowlers.

Shaun’s family was already among cricket’s two or three richest gene pools. Father-son combinations at first-class and even Test level are not uncommon, but in most cases one or other is a fringe player. And all this consistency was sustained through the daunting business of succeeding Hansie Cronje as South Africa’s captain.įew players in history had as much to live up to as Shaun Maclean Pollock, born in Port Elizabeth on July 16, 1973.

His bowling is as straight, tight and incisive as Glenn McGrath’s, and he is also an elegant, sometimes explosive batsman who averages 59 at No. Whatever happens in his thirties, he will go down as one of the game’s great all-rounders. Sport’s holy grail is consistency, and Pollock found it as soon as he entered international cricket. Shaun Pollock has not had an outstanding year. Neil Manthorp wrote this tribute in 2003 after Pollock was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. Shaun Pollock, one of the greats of South African cricket, turns 46 today.

A Very Different School by Peter Pollock