In the Afterglow of SA20
Hopeful. That is one way to describe how people felt after season one of SA20
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Cooler boxes. Packed lunch boxes. Small blankets. Cushions. Not many people left their homes without cushions. Not if they were going to seat in the Open East Stand. The wooden benches in that section were uncomfortable and had millions of splinters. Cushions were also handy for spectators with tickets for the embankment.
Husbands carried the cooler boxes. They were often the heaviest of the lot. And they contained drinks and alcohol. One needed as much alcohol as they could to keep their throats oiled for all the shouting and cheering. Mothers carried the lunch boxes and the cushions and blankets were divided among the kids. Going to the cricket was a family event.
At around 3 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays, one would encounter this mass humanity making its way to the Wanderers stadium on foot. The Wanderers’ parking has never been big enough to accommodate the fans. Late-model sedans lined the roads going back as far as Melrose Arch. On the odd occasion, one could run into Colin Bryden in a rush with a bag of balls. Benson and Hedges supplied just about everything during the matches - uniforms, balls…
In 1981, the South African branch of Benson and Hedges decided that they wanted to find a way of getting the name Benson & Hedges into public awareness without actually advertising cigarettes. The Australians were playing floodlit cricket, and that was a page they copied from. They also sent Robin Binckes and a couple of other guys to Australia, the land of Kerry Packer and cricket innovation, to learn about their ways.
They returned with clever promotion ideas. Young women appeared in newspapers and on television wearing team outfits. Coloured uniform was not a big thing in the 1980s, and the Benson and Hedges Night Series had the brightest colours around. Bright yellows, bright blues, bright browns - whatever colour it was, it was bright. The shirts also came with players' names on the back. Another first.
The only thing that competed with the shirts was the stumps. They were mainly bright orange. They were so bright you could see them from a plane. As loud as the shirts and stumps were, they were not as loud as the music. The Benson and Hedges Night Series were a vibe. Teams even had jingles. Basic knock-offs of popular songs with cheesy sing-along lines.
The Benson and Hedges Night Series brought floodlit domestic white ball cricket to South Africa and it took the land by storm. This was the future of cricket and everyone wanted to be a part of it. Walking into the Wanderers, it had a buzz. On matchday, parents rushed home early from work, kids waited with bated breath for their arrival and teenagers often went ahead directly from school. Movies, socializing at the bar and other pastimes waited for another day. This was the night for the family to enjoy some cricket.
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Graeme Smith was two months old when the first Benson and Hedges Night Series final was played at the Wanderers. His namesake, Graeme Pollock, and Alvin Kallicharan scored sensational half-centuries for Transvaal as they marched to victory.
A lot has changed since then.
During the Benson and Hedges era, smoking was acceptable among cricketers. After the match, players would often find boxes of cigarettes waiting for them in the dressing rooms. This was the amateur era. Smoking is no longer a thing that professional cricketers do.
Tobacco companies are no longer sponsoring sports. (After seeing the success of the Benson and Hedges Night Series, the United Tobacco Company launched the JPS Knockout - a soccer tournament). Benson and Hedges cut ties with cricket in 1996 after Ali Bacher voiced concerns over the sight of a player like Jonty Rhodes, a role model to impressionable youths, performing heroics on the field while wearing a shirt with the logo and name of a tobacco company. It was a health hazard.
Naturally, Benson and Hedges were not best pleased with Bacher’s views. They were making good money through their involvement with cricket and had a contract in place. They prepared to fight. But, Bacher had Michael Katz in his corner. They were ready for a showdown. It was all resolved amicably, in the end.
After the Benson and Hedges Night Series, Cricket South Africa tried a handful of times to launch marquee white ball tournaments with disastrous results - most of the time. Part of the problem was that administrators assumed that the game alone would attract fans.
The Benson and Hedges Night Series - and the Standard Bank Pro20 in the noughties - provided templates on how to run successful tournaments: pay attention to the ambience, enhance fan experience and put the cost of attending matches within reach of the masses. The administrators didn't learn.
At the Wanderers, the embankment is still as it was. The Open East Stand is still there, but it no longer has benches riddled with splinters. The old benches were repurposed. They are now the interior of the 438 Bar. They were replaced by yellow-coloured benches. Yellow, the colour of the Lions, the home side. It’s a cute coincidence that the Joburg Super Kings also wear yellow. It would have been awkward if they wore blue.
A time traveller from the 1980s will only recognise those two sections. Everything else came later. After unification, the administrators of Gauteng/Lions cricket decided that it was not enough to tell people of colour that they had as much right as anyone to come and go. They erected the Unity Stand as a symbol of that break from cricket’s apartheid past.
During the 1980s, the Wanderers was a cricket ground and nothing more. The gates only opened for cricket matches. It is now both a cricket ground and a lifestyle centre. Suites were converted into offices. There is a yoga centre. There is a medical centre that serves both the athletes and the general public. There are food outlets open throughout the year.
“It is no longer a hallowed stadium that comes alive when the Proteas or the Lions play. It is now a living, working stadium,” says DP World Lions CEO Jono Leaf-Wright.
This is the stadium that cricket built. Every brick at the Wanderers stadium was laid by the money earned from cricket.
For a few years after the first Benson and Hedges Night Series final, the finals returned to the Wanderers, partly because they had the best floodlights. At some of the other venues, players often felt like there were candlesticks in each corner. 42 years after the inaugural Benson and Hedges Night Series inaugural final, Graeme Smith was tasked with bringing to life a white ball tournament that would outdo all predecessors.
When Robin Binckes and his people pitched the idea of the Night Series, ‘cricket people’ did not buy into his vision. It was seen as too gimmicky. He swam against the tide. The only tide Smith had to swim against was the high public expectation. The unions had his back. Like the inaugural Benson and Hedges final, the first Betway SA20 final had to be held at the Wanderers.
This time, it was because the Wanderers is the only Tier One cricket stadium in Africa. By far, it accommodates more fans and more businesses than any other cricket ground. It offers more money-making opportunities.
Despite the changes, certain things have remained the same. Benson and Hedges matches introduced many amateur players to the idea of being paid to play cricket. After matches, they found brown envelopes with a couple of hundred rands with their names on them in the dressing room. The SA20 offered some players their biggest career payday. The player bonuses from the tournament winners and runner-ups might even be the most they have earned in a single go.
Coloured team uniforms are still king and music is ever-present at matches. Like Benson and Hedges matches, SA20 matches were a vibe. There was always a capacity crowd irrespective of who was playing. Despite being different formats, one was a 40-over tournament and the other is a T20 competition, both re-energised the sport and provided hope to fans that the sport is not yet on its deathbed.
Going to a Benson and Hedges night match was a family event. Most kids were excited to attend matches because they could play on the field during the innings breaks, some went for the off-chance of meeting the players. SA20 offered the same to the kids. It also accommodated everyone from the cricket connoisseurs to the parent who watched the kids more than the action on the field - the ones seeking an outing with their family.
Empty cooler boxes. Empty lunch boxes in Woolworths bags. Small blankets. Cushions. Not many people brought cushions to the SA20 final. They were not necessary. Black, white, Indian, coloured - that inclusive mass of humanity carried their lot as they walked away from the Wanderers. Young and old, they all had opinions on the match they had just watched. Everyone was excited about the future. They felt as if they had peered into the future of South African cricket.
SA20 has taken South Africa by storm.
For those that witnessed the Benson and Hedges Night Series, this was deja vu, but better. Much much better. For the millions that never had the opportunity to do so, SA20 was a wonderful first. For both parties, this is a feeling that must be shared. There were no strangers as they all made their way to their various modes of transport to go back home. In that brief moment, they were a part of something special.
And as South African cricket rebuilds itself, it just felt right that the inaugural final was held at the stadium that cricket built.
