Why do Australia and South Africa seem to bring out the best and worst in each other?
Some of the most memorable performances in the modern era of Test cricket have come when the Rainbow Nation tour Down Under, or vice versa. Ricky Ponting’s twin centuries on the SCG, Faf du Plessis’ marathon Test debut in Adelaide and Michael Clarke’s gritty century in Cape Town come quickly to mind.
And because the two nations live in similar conditions, home advantage is partially canceled out: cricket is fiercely competitive and rarely one-sided. The Proteas have not lost a Test series on Australian soil in 17 years.
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But their rivalry, while entertaining, has been plagued by nasty on-field controversies that dominated the front and back of the newspapers.
That is why discussion over the upcoming three-Test series, which begins in Brisbane this Saturday, has focused on the simmering tensions between the two sides, rather than cricket.
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A BRIEF HISTORY
In 1994, Australian bowler Merv Hughes lashed out at a booing spectator in Johannesburg and hit the fence with his bat. During that same test, the late Shane Warne delivered an abusive tirade against Andrew Hudson after throwing the South African around his legs.
“Fuck off. Come on, Hudson, get out of here!” bellowed the legendary leg-turner.
He was fined by the Australian Cricket Board and booed relentlessly by the crowd for the remainder of the match.
In 2014, Australian captain Clarke was accused of calling South African pacemaker Dale Steyn a “cheater” during the Cape Town Test, a comment Steyn confessed still bothered him six months later.
Du Plessis said the Australians behaved like a “pack of wild dogs” during that tour, stating that at least one player verbally barked after a dismissal.
“That was definitely the biggest abuse we had on the cricket pitch,” the Proteas AB legend de Villiers later proclaimed.
“Australia certainly made a conscious effort to verbally exaggerate.
“Maybe they felt like they could get under us if they really went out and got personal with some of us.
“It was unnecessary.”
Australia had mastered the art of sledding. Mind games became an integral part of the game.
It was seen as a necessity rather than mere strategy, and the Australian fanbase joined in on the farce, with mob abuse becoming a formality for tour parties.
“When I toured here in 2008, I thought Australia was the worst place in the world,” said South African pacemaker Morne Morkel. CODE Sports.
“The abuse we received, it was a really tough tour.
“You would come in the mornings of a test match and say hello to an Australian player and he would stare at you. That bully intimidation from day one is how it happened.”
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The rivalry reached a tipping point in 2018, when a sequence of misdemeanors coalesced into one of the biggest sports controversies of the past decade.
During the first Test in Durban, David Warner and Quinton de Kock nearly came to blows in a stairwell following a “vile and disgusting” comment by the South African goalkeeper about Warner’s wife.
“I responded emotionally and regretted the way it played out,” Warner said at the time.
“But I will always defend my family.”
In the same match, Nathan Lyon was fined for dropping the match ball onto de Villers’ body after shutting out the South African. He later apologized.
Warner unleashed a vicious spray on Centurion Aiden Markram after the race, for which former Proteas captain Graeme Smith called him a “silly”.
“Australia wanted to intimidate us…we had to defend ourselves,” du Plessis wrote in his book.
The following week, onlookers in St George’s Park gleefully demeaned Warner’s wife, taunting her with Sonny Bill Williams face masks. South African cricket officials smiled in the photos alongside them.
Later in the Durban Test, Proteas’ speedy Kagiso Rabada found himself in trouble for a post-wicket celebration, rubbing shoulders with Australian captain Steve Smith.
A repeat offender, Rabada received a two-match ban for the illegal contact, but successfully overturned the ban following a six-hour appeal hearing.
“The contact was more difficult than it actually seemed on TV,” Smith told reporters at the time.
“Whether it was intentional or not, that’s not for me to decide.”
Then in the third Test… well, we all know what happened in Cape Town.
‘IT’S GOING TO BE A FIGHTER’
The ramifications of Sandpapergate are still prevalent within Australian cricket: Warner’s decision to withdraw his appeal to have his lifetime leadership ban overturned cast a shadow over the recent pink ball test against the West Indies. The 36-year-old’s manager fanned the flames the next day.
Headlines about ball manipulation seem inescapable, but the Australian and South African players have unanimously declared that there is no lingering animosity between the two nations.
Several Proteas cricketers have retired since the 2018 drama series, including du Plessis, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Morkel, Vernon Philander and de Kock.
Meanwhile, Australia’s men’s cricket team has undergone a drastic makeover, shedding the win-at-all-cost mentality that contributed to the team’s downfall four years ago.
“Time heals all wounds,” Australian starter Usman Khawaja told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday.
“We are a very different Australian cricket team than we were then. The way we do it, the way we play. Many of the boys have matured as cricketers and humans. They’re a bit older, a couple more kids, we play our cricket differently.
“Australian cricket as a whole and as individual players has probably hit rock bottom. It gives you a lot of time to reflect on things. The guys have really learned a lot from that incident.
“I look at where the guys were four years ago and where they are now and there’s been a lot of growth.
“I probably got to see him better than most because I was on the team, then I left and came back and it’s a nice change.”
There may not be any lingering bad blood between the two sides, but you can expect to see a lot of passion and excitement over the next four weeks.
“It’s going to be quite energetic,” Proteas captain Dean Elgar said before leaving South Africa earlier this month.
“The people they have inside their squad are pretty brash and bold; in your face they are characters and that can work in our favor. I think that works in our favor. We enjoyed that matchup as a group and handled it pretty well.
“We have a calm head around that. If they want to be in your face, that’s fine. I’m definitely not ashamed of that and I’ll encourage the players not to be ashamed of that, because I think that’s when South Africans bring out the best in themselves.
“It was extremely juicy (in 2018) even up until that game in Cape Town. Those were interesting times, let’s put it that way. Hopefully that has been put to bed now.
“Hopefully there won’t be any mischief on the field that someone gets arrested for. But there is always a bit of spice. We love playing against Australia. We have a lot of respect for Australian cricket.”
The first test between Australia and South Africa begins at the Gabba on Saturday, with the opening installment scheduled for 11:20am AEDT.
