The last time South Africa debuted a pace bowler he took five wickets in
his first match and fifty after seven Tests. Vernon Philander created
giant footmarks and very few will be expecting Rory Kleinveldt to fill them when he appears for the first time in whites on the international stage in Brisbane.
A relative unknown to anyone outside South Africa, Kleinveldt's call-up
was reported like Philander's, as a coming in from the wilderness. Like
Philander though, Kleinveldt was not discovered in a cabbage patch in
Cape Town fully formed as an international bowler. His hard yards have
included two Twenty20 matches for South Africa with two years between
them, and massive improvements in his first-class game over the course
of half a decade.
The most popular story written about him so far though, has been his
being caught for smoking marijuana in March, weeks after being
reselected in South Africa's ODI squad. He was not the first cricketer
to dabble in illegal substances but the timing of his dalliance with
dagga (as it is known in South Africa) put his career on pause.
Kleinveldt's star was on the rise after he was named in the ODI squad to
play Sri Lanka in January, but he did not get a game before he was
withdrawn with an injury. Two months later, he tested positive and was
immediately dropped from the Cobras' T20 campaign. Kleinveldt confessed
at the first opportunity and conceded that he had "behaved irresponsibly
and made a big mistake."
He was more remorseful than the situation called for, not just because
of how close he was to international cricket but also since his actions
had hurt more people than just cricket coaches and team-mates.
Kleinveldt had set back a community desperate for their young players to
gain recognition after decades of being ignored.
Kleinveldt hails from an area in the Cape with a rich history in cricket
despite it being largely unwritten about. His family have long been
involved with the Victoria Cricket Club where his father, who is on the
tour of Australia to watch him, and uncle, Johnny were stalwarts. Johnny
is one its legends along with JP Duminy, Ashwell Prince and Monde
Zondeki also all played there.
Johnny opened the bowling with Vincent Barnes, South Africa's former
bowling and current national selector who also works on the High
Performance Programme, during their days playing under the South African
Cricket Board (the body under which sportsmen of colour could play
cricket). Ask around those Cape Town streets and they will tell you that
Johnny could well have played for South Africa had the opportunity been
afforded to him then.
Kleinveldt carried the hopes of people like that and knew he had let
them down and compromised his chances severely. Tony Irish, chief
executive of the South African Cricketers' Association, described him as
"distraught," at the time. Kleinveldt's subsequent apology and
admission saw leniency applied and he was banned for three months during
the off-season, which had no real impact on his career.
All he needed to do was regain some respectability, and that was
achievable through taking wickets. Kleinveldt had already ended the
first-class season well - seventh on the wicket-takers list with 32
scalps at an average of 17.93 - and had winter tours. The selectors kept
the faith in him when they included him in the South Africa A side to
play against Sri Lanka A. His 4 for 47 was instrumental in the team's
innings victory.
Kleinveldt was also part of the group who went to Ireland to shadow the
senior side in England, and it was there that his challenge for a place
in the Test XI took real shape. "Rory was definitely my best bowler in
both those series," Barnes told ESPNcricinfo.
Even though Kleinveldt only took five wickets compared to Wayne
Parnell's 12, Barnes was impressed with his control and the bounce he
extracted from hitting the deck hard. "He has always been a very good
cricketer and very skilful and his maturity really showed over the last
year," Barnes said. "He has bowled a lot with Vernon in the first-class
competition and the two of them together caused a lot of problems for
the batsmen."
Philander and Kleinveldt built a reputation as the Dale Steyn and Morne
Morkel of the Cape. Although they don't have the pace of the former two
and rely more on discipline, consistency and subtlety to take wickets
than swing or bounce - they claimed many scalps together. Now, they
foursome will combine in a Test match and Barnes expects nothing more
than great success, even though Kleinveldt may not have been expecting
to play.
Word out of the South African camp in the lead up to the Test was would
be reluctant to consider an all-pace attack. Gary Kirsten, AB de
Villiers and assistance coach Russell Domingo all said they would,
"Always like a spinner in the side," but they sprung a surprise at the
toss when Imran Tahir was left out and Kleinveldt was named to debut. He
performed well in the warm-up match at Sydney on a dead pitch where he
bowled economically and took wickets as he looked to stake a claim for
himself.
"Rory understood when he went over that he would be back up and that if
the opportunity came along through conditions or injury he had to be
ready," Barnes said. "He has done a lot of work with me and he has
really come along. He knows that very few people get second chances and
he doesn't want to waste it."
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