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Robson Sharuko
Senior Sports Editor
DALE STEYN, the king of swing, simply can’t resist the lure of Zimbabwe, calling it a “special place,” in the latest chapter of his romantic attachment to this country.
It’s been a long love affair, between South Africa’s cricket superstar and the country he probably could have played for, had his grandparents not crossed the Limpopo to settle in South Africa.
After all, it’s here, on a visit to his family as a 10-year-old that he first was exposed to cricket in the backyard of a relative’s house while on holiday.
That was 26 years ago.
The rest, as they say, is now for the historians — 2 356 days as the number one bowler in the ICC Test rankings, the longest streak by a bowler since World War II, ICC Cricketer of the Year, Wisden Cricketer of the Year, Wisden Leading Cricketer In The World in 2013 and 2014 Wisden Cricketers Almanac.
He took 439 Test wickets, the fastest bowler to do so based on balls bowled.
Steyn, who retired from Test cricket in August last year, is considered one of the greatest fast bowlers of all-time.
And, on Tuesday, the 36-year-old South African once again expressed his love for Zimbabwe.
“Watching highlights of our one-off Test against Zimbabwe in Harare,” he tweeted.
“Brings back some great memories, my family are all originally from Zim so I’ve always had a soft spot for them in cricket, wished we could have toured there more often.
“Special times, special place.”
On September 29, last year, just a month after walking away from Test cricket, Steyn once again reminded the world of his Zimbabwean roots.
“My entire family is from Zimbabwe, we spent most of my childhood holidaying there and visiting friends etc,” he said. “Always had a soft spot for Zim.”
He even still remembers a tour to this country, as a schoolboy in the ’90s, when they played against Hippo Valley Primary School.
“I was on that tour, I went with my primary school Fauna Park. Remember playing Hippo Valley well, great times,” said Steyn.
There is a reason why Steyn’s comments matter. He has more than 3.2 million followers on Twitter alone.
And, when he speaks, the world listens because, according to India Today, part of the Living Media India Limited, a conglomerate based in New Dehli, he is a “modern day great, a fast bowler feared by the best in the business, a boy from humble beginnings, who made it big in the world of cricket on his own.”
And, in a lengthy interview with the media organisation, Steyn chronicled his story and how he came into contact with cricket, at around the age of 10, during a family visit to this country.
“I was about 10, or so, when I first came in contact with cricket,” he said. “I was visiting my family in Zimbabwe and played the game in the backyard.
“And, I remember when I got back to school after the vacations in January, everyone seemed to be playing this crazy sport called cricket. I joined the party and, since then, there has been no looking back.
“I did everything when I was growing up. I was an opening batter in primary school, but fast bowling was one thing that I was always better at than anybody else. I started playing Men’s club cricket at a very young age.
“I kind of realised very early that I was put on earth to bowl fast and take wickets and entertain people in big stadiums.
“I want to be remembered as a good human being who played the game hard but was a good guy. A game is usually remembered by numbers — but numbers is not an issue. I think people’s opinion on people is a lot more valuable.”
But, as the British newspaper, The Independent, noted when he was sending waves around the world in June 2008, it was not always easy.
“Four years ago, Dale Steyn could barely afford a pair of cricket shoes,” the newspaper noted.
“He was the kid from nowhere who had been picked for South Africa’s Test team and he was ill-equipped in almost every sense.
“The one sense in which Steyn was abundantly equipped was that of raw talent and he arrived in England as the world’s top-ranked fast bowler.
“He has 30 pairs of cricket shoes “all stacked up and ready to go” in a bedroom of a new house in Cape Town which is specially dedicated to cricket.
“Steyn is slightly under 6ft, fast, very fast, swings the ball away late, very late from the right-handed batsmen and has the breathtaking ability to come up with deliveries which would take any wicket on the planet.
“This has usually involved swing or sharp seam, all at something well above 90mph, clattering into off stump.”
When Steyn’s family left Zimbabwe, they settled in Phalaborwa, a small town in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, on the edges of the Kruger National Park.
Maybe, that explains how he has remained with an attachment to this country, despite being a dedicated Protea.
His father worked at a copper mine but, for Steyn, his future was elsewhere.
“I just wanted out,” he told The Independent.
“We came from Zimbabwe way back and my whole family lives in the town now. Something just struck me that I didn’t want to do this.
“That I didn’t want to be like everybody else. I was completely different to everyone in the family, the only guy who went to a hostel, the only one who didn’t want to live at home.
“I had one pair of shoes and I had to buy them myself when I first started playing internationals. I just didn’t have the money for more than one. I was begging Shaun Pollock for a pair of shoes.
“I am a boy from the bush. It’s where I grew up, barefoot, running through the bush, not scared of anything. I still fish now, I still know my way around the bush, I know what to do and what not to do with snakes, animals, water.”
Sounds typical, isn’t it?
Online Reporter