That's Why They Play Cricket
David Wiese, Max O'Dowd, Roelof van der Merwe... Are you not entertained by them?
If you are a regular reader of Stumped! you know that I typically don't do morning-after/day-after recaps. But, Thursday's matches undoubtedly provided those That's Why They Play Cricket moments, and I could not resist.
Here is what happened: Roelof van der Merwe cried and so did David Wiese. Their cries were both from pain, but their pain came from different places.
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Let's start with Wiese's pain.
In 2020, Albie Morkel sent a text to David Wiese that read: "How's it going? Listen, let's get your international career back on track."
Wiese was ecstatic. Here was an opportunity for him to have a second crack at an international career he had thought he had put to bed years ago. Morkel was offering him a second bite of the cherry and Wiese was going to make th most of it. But, he also wanted to do things the right way.
Wiese did not want to swoop in, play and vanish the next day. Of course, no one would have been bothered if he had done that. He had a CV most of his teammates could only dream about. Some of them will never even bother to enter player drafts in the leagues where Wiese is a staple. But, they had qualified for the world cup without him. They had put in the hard yards.
Wiese did not want to be that guy. According to Wiese, had the world cup not been postponed and had taken place in 2020, he might not have taken part. The Cricket Namibia administrators would have moved mountains to make sure that all his paperwork was in order, but Wiese felt that he would not have spent enough time with the team to feel that he was one of them. He wanted to know the team first, not just meet the guys. He wanted to learn the team culture and be able to add to its growth.
“I didn't feel comfortable about that. I didn’t want to be that guy that just walks into a team and thinks that they belong there, and you know, just walk in and take over or whatever,” says Wiese.
Wiese wanted to add value.
As I watched a distraught Wiese cry over Namibia's loss in the dugout, I couldn't help but think that he felt as if he had failed his teammates. It was his job to take them home and he had failed. He had failed by inches. If his shot had been a few inches higher, it would have eluded Alishan Sharafu’s hands and he might have taken Namibia home on the last delivery or with a ball to spare.
If that ball had just been a little higher, Namibia would have received $30 000 for qualifying for the Super 12s. Namibia needs that money to develop the game. And according to Wiese, the Super 12s would have been a great platform for them to showcase their skills. Namibia doesn’t play a lot of high-profile cricket.
As he sat in the dugout, Wiese cried over shattered dreams.
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Max O’Dowd refused to let go of a dream.
As far as everyone was concerned, the Dutch had lost. But, someone forgot to tell Max O'Dowd. He batted as if there was no giant scoreboard to let him know the state of the game. Watching him bat reminded me of Rambo, the movie. Maybe the hair had something to do with it. In my head I saw Rambo stepping over the bodies of his comrades, advancing towards the enemy.
Max O’Dowd faced the first ball of the Netherlands’ innings, and he faced the last one. Between those two deliveries, he watched as the Sri Lanka bowlers lay waste to the Dutch batting lineup. Bas de Leede and Tom Cooper reached double figures, but couldn’t reach 20 runs. His captain Scott Edwards brought a giant broom to the crease and swept his way to 21 runs, but could not go further. Everyone else never got going.
In the midst of this carnage, Max O'Dowd kept swinging, and he was swinging hard.
Enter pug. That's what his mates call him. They alternate pug with bulldog. Roelof van der Merwe earned the nickname(s) because of his obstinate, never-say-die attitude.
When he came on, van der Merwe was in no state to bat.
Sometime during the Sri Lanka innings, van der Merwe hurt himself. It looked as if he had exacerbated a pre-existing back issue into a full-blown back injury sometime during the first two overs that he bowled. For most of the 14th over, van der Merwe let out yelps of pain and went down on his knees between deliveries. He was in distressing physical pain. At the end of the 14th over, van der Merwe hobbled off the field.
Jarrod Kimber offered the best description of van der Merwe's state: he looked "more like he'd just been dragged from a car crash and then forced to put on pads and a helmet and stagger out to the middle."
But, despite his state, Roelof van der Merwe came in to bat late into the 18th over. No one expected him to do so, the game already looked beyond the reach of the Netherlands. But here was an injured van der Merwe, staggering out to try and help O’Dowd manufacture an unlikely run chase.
When van der Merwe came out to bat, the Netherlands were on 123/9. They needed 40 runs from 14 balls for victory, 39 runs to level the scores and head for a super over. It looked improbable. The Netherlands were going at 6.88 runs an over, meanwhile, the required run rate had ballooned to around 19 runs an over. It looked improbable, not impossible, and van der Merwe hobbled out to help make it happen.
It didn’t happen. O’Dowd kept throwing his bat at anything and everything, and van der Merwe did his best impression of running between the wickets. He had to do it four times, on the last ball of the 18th over, the last ball of the 19th over, and the second and third balls of the 20th over. It was not a pretty sight, but it also showed an indomitable spirit
But, as Harsha Bhogle said, one of the reasons you watch sport is to see Roelof van der Merwe trying to complete that run. It does something to you. It is like watching Derek Redmond hobble across the finish line after tearing his hamstring at the 1992 Olympics. It’s inspiring. And that is why they play cricket.
Are you not entertained?