Here we are three days from ‘showtime’ at World Cup 2003 and banner headlines on back and front pages of the two main white language newspapers in the Mother City proclaim there is stark, if not massive, interest in the event. Naturally the front page is about the political issues surrounding world cricket’s showpiece. If you have followed the event from afar, the main news items on the front pages of Cape Times and Die Burger (The Citizen), would not come as a surprise. They are about manoeuvring of Australian and England plans over their games against Zimbabwe. It is very much the same story on local TV channels as well. While Australia say ‘yes’ they will join Asian giants India and Pakistan and meet their commitments by playing Zimbabwe as scheduled (in Bulawayo), England are meeting the International Cricket Council’s Technical Committee about switching their game against Zimbabwe from Harare to a safer South African haven. Amid this background are the graphic colour pictures of baton wielding Zimbabwe policemen and the American ambassador in Harare at the so-called ‘treason trial’ of Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. In the outside street as sullen faces greet the banning of many from this sideshow, are the banners proclaiming the World Cup is now days away. There is also a ‘dew-eyed’ item reflecting West Indies captain Carl Hooper and his laying a bouquet of flowers at the wall of remembrance at Hansie Cronje’s alma mater Grey College in Bloemfontein. There is as well a story about Hooper’s own comments about Cronje. As this is also a big news item on television, the buzz phrase ‘World Cup countdown’ is spread across most of the country’s oldest city less than a decade after the first democratic elections. For those who suggest there is no buzz should have been present at a breakfast held on Wednesday at the Kelvin Grove Club, which is within walking distance of Newlands. Shaun Pollock, the South African captain, and team coach, Eric Simons, gave a preview of the opening game against the West Indies on Sunday. As World Cup 2003 represents a wider demographic audience, the impact of cricket in South Africa is growing faster than the Raj poet, Rudyard Kipling, who coined the phrases ‘flannelled fools’ and ‘muddied oafs’ in 1914 would have imagined. His ‘flannelled fools’ have become heroes of a nation looking for new idols. The big difference here is that in 2003 cricket in South Africa has identifiable black champions in players such as Makhaya Ntini and Herschelle Gibbs as well as Charl Langaveld and Robin Peterson. There are other names: Paul Adams and Roger Telemachus on the fringes along with the rising stars, the 16-year-old schoolboy Frans Nkuna and Mondi Zondeki. The last named fast bowler is a member of South Africa’s World Cup squad. From Harare, Johannesburg, Centurion, Bloemfontein, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, there are at least the signs of World Cup 2003, a high profile event that most South Africans want to get involved. Four years ago in England, the World Cup had an identity as an identity crisis. It was all about something called ‘Man Whoever.’ (Manchester United) on some special trip to Barcelona. World Cup cricket? ‘Ah.’ asked a taxi driver on his way to Lord’s with two occupants the day England played Sri Lanka in the opening game. ‘Does cricket also have a World Cup?’ That he was of West Indian descent did not escape the attention of his passengers.
