To The Left, To The Left...
SA left-arm seamers and Marco Jansen, the great left-arm hope.
“If there is anything that I could say to Marco right now it would be, enjoy every moment don’t put pressure on yourself. You’re still very young and deserve to be there for a long time,” says Gordon Parsons, Marco Jansen’s long time bowling coach.
Kyle Abbott made his Proteas debut at SuperSport Park. His first delivery was a half-volley on Azhar Ali's pads. It went for four runs. Marco Jansen also made his debut at SuperSport Park, and his first delivery was a full-toss. Mayank Agarwal sliced it through point for four runs.
They both started their Test careers with bad deliveries. But this is where the similarities end.
Abbott's over got better with each delivery. It got so better that he got his first wicket five balls later. Marco Jansen's over didn't really get better. He had two bad balls, one that was punished and another that wasn't. A good length delivery went for four and another was a dot ball.
Kyle Abbott went on to take a five-wicket haul on debut. Marco Jansen took only one wicket.
As players, they are as different as their debut innings. Abbott is a right-arm fast-medium. Marco Jansen is a left-arm fast-medium. This is one of the things that make Marco Jansen special. His left-arm bowling. South Africa doesn't produce many left-arm seamers. At least not at international level.
Where Pakistan produces left-arm seamers by the dozen, South Africa produces them sparingly. This is odd when you consider how many elite pacers South Africa produces. In 30 years of Test cricket, South Africa has only had 6 left-arm seamers. That is as many as Bangladesh. Bangladesh is not famous for its pacers and only played their first Test match in 2000.
Besides Brett Schultz, Proteas have not had a dominant left-arm seamer.
“Brett Schultz really was a sensational bowler,” says his former bowling partner, Allan Donald. “Unfortunately, his body was just not built for fast bowling.”
Schultz got injured a lot, and that hampered his international career. In five years with the Proteas, he only played nine Tests. He was forced to retire at 27. He attempted a comeback in 1999, but he managed to only bowl nine deliveries and it became clear that he would not play cricket again. His body wouldn’t allow him.
But, when he was available he was a menace. One of the quickest bowlers South Africa has ever produced, according to Donald who estimates that Schultz could crank it up to 150+ kph.
Schultz had a searing pace and great control. He could reverse swing at will. And he nailed his yorkers over and around the wicket.
“He was a sensational bowler,” says Donald as he begins to recount Proteas’ tour of Sri Lanka in 1993. Schultz decimated the Sri Lanka batting line-up, literally scythed them.
“He literally scared some of the Sri Lankan guys,” says Dave Nosworthy who played with him briefly at Westview Cricket Club in the late ‘80s.
Noseworthy would later play against him in franchise cricket. It is not a contest that he looked forward to. Gary Kirsten is another one who didn’t enjoy facing Schultz’s pace.
“He was one of the best that I played against,” says Kirsten. “I think what made him so good was that he was a genuine 145kph bowler. He could bowl with swing and real aggression.”
“Fearsome. Good gas. Aggressive. And always wanting to take wickets. And if not, hurt you, to be honest,” says Nosworthy.
Since readmission, South Africa has bowled 33361.4 overs of pace in Test cricket. Only 1.94% of those deliveries are left-arm seam. If that is not something, then this is. Brett Schultz played 36% of all matches for the Proteas by left-arm seamers. Schultz bowled 44% of overs bowled by left-arm seamers for Proteas. That is a lot for a man who only played nine Tests.
The treatment of Charl Willoughby best explains why those numbers are the way they are. In his second Test, Willoughby bowled 20 overs, didn’t get a wicket and was not used in the second innings. There is a lack of patience, investment and nurture towards left-arm seamers.
After Schultz, there has been Willoughby, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Wayne Parnell, Beuran Hendricks, they have all had very short runs.
“Obviously, a left-arm seamer is a real value add to any team, ” says Gary Kirsten, “just shifting angles and just making it more complicated for batters.”
But all that, the angles and all of that, appears to matter very little to South Africa cricket, judging by their treatment of left-arm quicks. They have been content with their right arm quicks. So much so that it is not strange to think that left-arm quicks might have had more chances if they were right-arm seamers. Sort of like Bruce Reid’s situation.
At 6ft 8in, Marco Jansen is a big lad. Less Brett Schultz, who is around 6ft 5in and more Bruce Reid, 6ft 8in.
Reid was just before the beginning of the left-arm revolution. Before Wasim Akram and other left-arm seamers took over the world. When he came along, very few people had an idea of what he was and his potential. They probably considered him as a left-arm Garner, and nothing more.
Which was probably why Australia just bowled him in way too many ODIs, despite his struggles there. Joel Garner did exceptionally well in ODIs, virtually unplayable. But Reid was no Garner. He was pretty average in ODIs. He struggled to get wickets and wasn’t as economical.
Reid was tall and fast, a thinking and clever cricketer who could seam the ball. Like Schultz, if his body had kept up, he would have gone on to be one of the great left-arm bowlers. I think there are more who speak of him in the same way that Allan Donald speaks of Schultz.
“I just don't think people give him enough credit for what he has achieved,” Donald says.
“Reid’s impact was similar to Jameison in that he was just difficult to handle at all times, he was the difference between Australia being shit and good usually,” Jarrod Kimber shared with me.
Marco Jansen is a bit of both, Schultz and Reid. He swings the ball a bit, but not much to rave about. What he can do is get it to come into the right-hander. His current problem might be that he doesn’t do that often enough. If he did, he would be closer to Starc, which would be lethal.
Marco is not as fast as Schultz, though. He is just fast enough, and tall enough, like Reid. Also like Reid, he gets some additional bounce from back of a length, and just like Reid, he tries to beat batters with seam and height.
Unlike both Reid and Schultz, Jansen can bat a bit. His height comes in as an asset in this regard. More like Allan Davison, than anything else. Jansen’s stroke play is good and can score at a brisk pace. He averaged just over 60 in the SA A vs India A series, thanks to a half-century and a couple of not-outs. His First-Class batting numbers are not shabby either.
Jansen is the complete package. A decent number 8 in a side. He can bat at 7 seven if the side is desperate. But he is more of a number 8 than anything else.
“He is still very young and we must be patient he has a lot to learn still but is a very rare and unique talent that can become World Class,” cautions Gordon Parsons who has worked with Jansen for years.
Parsons started work with Marco and his twin Duan when they were around 15 or 16 years of age. That was before his now-famous net joust with Virat Kohli. The twins were brought to him by Claude April, the North West Under-19 coach, through the specialist coaching sessions paid for CSA. It is a program meant for talented youngsters, an accelerator of sorts.
Back then Jansen had an open action and his line-up to target was poor. Marco has come a long way from those days. He has a shorter distance to go before he grows into one of the killer left-arm seamers in world cricket. Parsons has little doubt about that.
“His work ethic is excellent and he is a very quiet listener who absorbs information,” says Parsons.
Marco does his homework. Whatever coaches tell him to work on, he goes home and does that.
“This you can see from how he improves from session to session,” says Parsons who often gave Marco suggestions of what to work on. Whenever they would meet afterwards, Jansen would be showing signs of improvement.
But Marco will only become better if South Africa are less impatient with him. He has all the potential of being greater than Schultz. In him, Proteas might finally have found the left-armer who will play a very important role for them.
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