Controversial First Test ends with an SA win

First Test - Centurian

Match day and the anticipation before any Test series is huge but between these 2 countries who have an intense rivalry and it’s at fever pitch. We agreed to meet up with the Pakistanis at their team hotel because they have a police escort and the 65kms we have to travel to SuperSport Park is easier to get to on a working day with a police escort.

The escort consists of 10 motorbike riders on high powered machines with lights and sirens going. What excitement when we pulled out of the hotel at 8.30am and these guys went to work stopping traffic, blocking off roads and generally just keeping everything well away from the coach party. The journey can take as much as an hour on some mornings but with our high speed companions we reached the ground in 30 minutes! I now know how VIP’s feel – spoilt!!!

All was set fair the weather was great, the pitch had dried out sufficiently and everything was fine when the captains and I went out to toss. Pakistan won it and decided to bat and Greame Smith wasn’t too bothered because he didn’t exactly know what to do. Well things turned out pretty well for Inzi and Pakistan as they weathered the new ball and set about building a first innings score. Both Hameed and Younis Khan got half centuries whilst Ntini picked up 2 wickets on an honours even kind of day as the Pakistanis finished on 242 for 5. As officials at the end of the day we were invited into a hospitality box adjacent to the umpires’ room. The box was run by Rudi Bryson a former South African cricketer who came to Surrey for one season in 1992 and now runs a hospitality business here in Pretoria. An enjoyable evening was had by all!

Mornings and evenings followed pretty much the same pattern for the following 3 days as the police guided us to the ground in the morning and Mr Bryson entertained us in his box in the evenings. The days cricket play was anything but predictable though!

South Africa fought back well in the morning of day 2 with Ntini picking up 3 more wickets totaling 5 for the innings, the 16th time he’s done that in his career. So Pakistan ended on 313, not a bad total and it got better when they picked up 3 quick wickets with Smith and DeVilliers and then Kallis going cheaply. Hasim Amla and Ashwell Prince steadied the ship to have them 254 for 4 at the end of the day. Honours just favouring South Africa at this stage!

The morning session of day 3 belonged to Prince and Hershelle Gibbs who both scored well to give a definite advantage to the home team. Their morning was only spoilt by the fact that Gibbs got out in the over before lunch, but they were in a very strong position at 356 for 5. It was then that the visitors came back at the Proteas as they knocked over the last 5 wickets for the addition of only 61 runs but Prince made an excellent hundred and they had a lead of 104 on a pitch with increasing turn and inconsistent bounce. There was some more good play by the visitors as it was their turn to weather the new ball storm and come through relatively unscathed. They were 12 without loss at tea and then 103 for 2 at the close with Farhat and Younis Khan both in the fourties and looking well set, more importantly they had all-but wiped out the deficit from the first innings. The game is evenly poised!

Day 4 was another fascinating one as first one side got an advantage and then the other got it back. The first session only produced 60 runs for the loss of 2 wickets which meant that Pakistan were only 56 runs ahead with 6 wickets remaining but importantly Inzamam-ul-Haq was still at the crease. Things got much better for South Africa after the break as Inzi, Faisal Iqbal and Kamran Akmal all fell leaving the visitors only 95 runs ahead with 3 wickets in hand. There then followed an interesting faze as Smith took the new ball hoping that that would hurry the demise of the Pakistani side, instead it hurried the scoring as the tail wagged very nicely. Rana Naved and Shahid Nazir took the attack to SA and no-one was spared their flashing blades.

Unfortunately as the day was coming to an interesting end a news story broke that soured all that had gone before because it was reported to me that a South African player had been heard over the stump microphone racially abusing some Pakistani supporters within earshot of the Pakistan captain who was batting at the time. It wasn’t clear who the culprit was until close to the days end when Herschelle Gibbs admitted to saying the words. There was frantic action by Cricket SA to try and lessen the impact and appease the Pakistan management who were understandably upset by the remarks.
The days play finished with SA on 65-2 needing another 130 to win but the focus had changed to the reported incident rather than what should have been the end to an exciting cricket contest.
When I got back to our hotel I received a phone call from the Pakistan manager, Talat Ali that they want to lay a charge against Gibbs. I went to their hotel and had a good chat with him explaining that Cricket SA were going to release a statement about the incident first thing tomorrow which would hopefully include an apology and possibly a charge against Gibbs.
I hoped he would agree to delay giving me the charge sheet until after he’d read the statement in the morning which he agreed to do.

The last morning of the match came and we were woken by a huge thunder storm at about 5am. This is not unusual in these parts but it was still cloudy and rainy when we left the hotel and arrived at the ground. Good I thought, this will give Cricket SA time to organise the statement, hand it to all concerned before play gets underway. Not a chance! After an hour of being there and nothing was forthcoming I phoned the media liaison representative who admitted to me that they were stalling for time. I know not why but the longer it went on the more complicated it became because the Pakistan Board were getting involved and the Australian media were interested, particularly as word was getting out that the incident occurred because the players were getting racially abused by some Pakistani fans at the game. This brought back the memories of SA’s tour to Australia last year when they accused the Aussie supporters of racial abuse.
Play started at 11.15 after some mopping up and SA got through to lunch just losing the nightwatchman Harris. In the mean time Cricket SA announced that it was holding a hearing into the allegations at 9.00am Tuesday morning the day after the game, but just before that it was announced the Pakistan management had lost patience with the home board and handed me a letter saying that they were going to charge Gibbs for the remarks. The plot thickened when I got a phone call from David Richardson saying that Malcolm Speed, our CEO, was laying a charge against Gibbs for the remarks.
In the end Mr Speed’s charge sheet came through first, so in fact it was ICC that charged the player and the hearing was held at the close of play which incidentally SA won by 7 wickets thanks to half centuries by Kallis and man-of-the-match; Hashim Amla.

Almost half the SA side accompanied Gibbs into the hearing which made things very cosy because I also had the Pakistan management and the captain in our small umpires’ room. There was a lot of frank discussion with SA defending their man but Pakistan saying how hurt they were by the remarks. After 45 minutes of chat and counter chat both side had just about finished so I adjourned the hearing so that I could get my head around what had been said and come to a decision. I made that decision after calling the players back to the room and I could get away from the fact that the remarks, however provoked were racial and were offensive to the Pakistanis. I was left with no option but to ban Gibbs for 2 Test matches. This is the worst part of my job because I was very passionate about the game when I played and I sometimes boiled over at instances that happened but this has to be stamped on as racial abuse, whether it’s player on player or crowd to player or player to crowd, must be eradicated.

I trust this will be the last we hear of this subject in this series and I hope Cricket SA take the case of crowd control very seriously because this is how the whole ugly incident began!

See you all in Port Elizabeth for the 2nd Test.
best wishes
Chris Broad