Jon-Jon's sliding doors

There are many routes Jon-Jon Smuts' career could have taken

Eastern Province didn’t need Jon-Jon Smuts to do a lot. His unbeaten 23 runs were enough to guarantee their u15 team victory over Boland u15 at the PG Bison u15 national week. Earlier in the match, Smuts had taken two wickets for 22 runs in 10 overs to help his team bundle Boland out for 84 runs.

Smuts’ contribution with the bat helped Eastern Province to reach 85/1 with little sweat off their brow. His Player of the Match performance was a great way to cap off a three-month run that had started in early October. That was a life-changing surge.

“I had a really good tournament, did really well with both bat and ball. And that got me thinking towards more about cricket. I wasn’t thinking that I’d ever go professional, but that this is definitely something I really enjoyed,” Smuts recalled.

In an alternative universe, Smuts doesn’t experience this fruitful run, which means that he doesn’t take cricket a little more seriously. The knock-on effect is that he doesn’t work harder, doesn’t improve his game, and so he doesn’t make his Khaya Majola debut 12 months later.

In that world, Smuts takes his tennis seriously - he competed on the junior circuit in South Africa for years - earns a scholarship to the USA, graduates, and plays a few years on the ATP Tour. Smuts has a competitive streak. He wants to compete against the best in the world on the biggest stages. In a world where he pursues tennis, he qualifies and competes in the US and Australian Opens, before becoming a tennis coach.

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Smuts dialled back the years. When he was 19, Smuts developed a reputation for smashing bowlers back over their heads. He whacked bowlers so much that it was as if he charged down every second delivery with the intention of drilling it down the ground.

At 19, he was overconfident. At 32, when he belted a Jhye Richardson delivery over mid-on in Potchefstroom, Smuts was wiser and more discerning. He wasn’t trying to bully the Australian bowling attack. Instead, he anchored South Africa’s innings on his way to a 98-ball 84. This was his maiden ODI half-century. He reached the milestone with the shot against Richardson.

In that match, Smuts didn’t just play a pivotal innings with the bat, but like he did for Eastern Province u15 in 2003, he had helped put South Africa in a strong position by taking two wickets earlier in the match. He accounted for D’Arcy Short and Alex Carey on his way to two wickets for 42 runs in nine overs.

Smuts’ Player of the Match performance explained why Mark Boucher had given Smuts a five-match run in the ODI side. The coach was convinced that Smuts was an asset for his 50-over team and had plans of keeping him in the squad.

In an alternative universe, where COVID-19 doesn’t happen, Smuts gets a longer run with the Proteas and he is able to establish himself well enough to be part of the 2023 ODI World Cup, regardless of who is coaching.

“My brother, Kelly, was more talented than me. Cricket came more naturally to him. Unfortunately, he got injured early in his career and that slowed him down. So, I learned pretty early that things don’t always work out. So, I am grateful for the few games that I played for the Proteas,” Smuts shared.

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Smuts arrived at St George’s Park just in time to watch Garnett Kruger take a hat-trick. The family hadn’t travelled 130kms from Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), to catch a cricket match. They were there for a cricket tournament at the P Tennis Club, just next door to St George’s Park.

Smuts and Kelly, who had just disposed of their opposition on the hard courts at P Tennis Club, had an hour to kill and spent it watching the last hour and half of play. Watching Kruger dismiss Kumar Sangakkara, Russell Arnold, and Tillakaratne Dilshan was a thrill, one that stayed with him long afterwards. However, what made a bigger impression was the venue. Smuts fell in love with St George’s Park.

“We love playing cricket and we definitely wanted to play cricket together and professionally one day. I think that visit sparked that love of the place. We were like, ‘Yes, we’d love to play here at St. George’s one day,’” Kelly recalled

Every visit that followed that one only deepened his love for the stadium. Smuts is a small town boy. His father left work at 16:45, got home before 17:00 and then drive his two boys to the only cricket nets in town, which were five minutes away. It wasn’t just the nets that were five minutes away, so was the school and the business district.

It sounds boring and small to many, but it is a life Smuts was happy with; however, he was ready to let go of it if it meant spending more time at St George’s Park. Every second Smuts spent in the nets was a step closer to playing for the Warriors at St George’s Park.

“Playing at St George’s was a lifelong dream. I think its a great ground with an awesome atmosphere,” Smuts said.

There is an alternate universe where he leaves St George’s Park because he is too old to work. In that world, the Warriors do not let go of him at the end of the 2022-23 season. He finishes his career with the team that signed him as a teenager, and transitions into the coaching ranks with the franchise. In this version of life, Smuts’ hunger for international cricket is sated by a handful of appearances for the Proteas.

What happened, instead, was that he experienced a second wind after he joined the Dolphins, who got the best of Jon-Jon Smuts the all-rounder. Then a new door slid open, one that the teenage version of him never dreamed of.

The Italian Cricket Federation reached out to him to inquire if he still had World Cup ambitions. Does a fish live in water? Of course Smuts had World Cup ambitions. They informed him that he qualified to play for them, through his wife.

“They told me that I could play for them since I have not played for South Africa for three years, and could attend trials with them once I get my passport,” Smuts revealed.

There is a world where Smuts pulls off a Player of the Match performance at the 2026 T20 World. We still don’t know if it’s an alternate universe or not.