ICC to honour Graeme Pollock

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alf101 said:

Nice to see one of our greats being honoured.
Pity our own cricket board don't give "apartheid" players recognition.

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I'm delighted that Graeme Pollock received the recognition. From all accounts, he was a great of the game. Regarding local recognition - I have to take some issue with your statement though. Graeme Pollock has been recognized in many ways. He was given a special award at the 2003 world Cup hosted in South Africa, and he was appointed as a test selector in 2000. He was also recognized in many other ways. What is significant for me is that Graeme was bold enough (at a time when it was not popular to do so), to protest against apartheid in sport... he actually led a walk-off the field in protest against the racist policies at the time.

One also has to remember that due to the silly racist policies at the time, many players of color were not allowed by the South African government to play at test level, or even to participate alongside their white peers. How many Duminys, Gibbs, Ntinis, Langeveldts and Princes disappeared into oblivion without any recognition. The one who managed to escape (Basil D'Oliviera), eventually ended up as a test cricketer for England.

Let's not also forget, that all of Graeme's test innings were confined to matches against England and Australia. South Africa's apartheid policies at the time, meant that they refused to share the field with any players of colour, which by implication excluded the likes of great cricket playing nations like the West Indies, India, Pakistan etc. To be regarded as truly great, cricketers would like to have a record indicating that they could be consistent against any opposition, and on any playing surface. Unfortunately, Graeme does not have this record, through no fault of his own.

That's not to detract from Graeme's record in any way, but to give some perspective to the complications of truly honouring South African cricketers from all walks of life, who happened to find themselves plying their trade in the height of apartheid South Africa.

To be honest, not a personal thing, but Graeme Pollock's career is not really measurable by today's standards.
Stop the stats of many batsmen who were off to a flying start at 22 tests and quite a few of them have better averages. Mark Taylor and Mike Hussey are two that immediately come to mind, and there would be many others if one took the time to research.
They usually 'come back to the field' after bowlers work them out etc.

[Just checked: For the record, Taylor had a peak average at test 18 of 60 runs and Hussey had an average of 78 after 22 tests, 86 after 18...edit after 23 tests he had 8 hundreds/9 fifties and still after 34 tests on average of 59.4...if Hussey stopped now would he be in Hall of Fame...not a chance]

Add to the fact that Pollock only played against England , Australia and NZ, and it further dimishes the 'aura'.
The rest of his first class career was mostly in the Currie Cup, which was weakened by lack of international competition.

Ditto Barry Richards...for all his exploits in County and in Sheffield Shield, he still only played 4 test (one series against Aus), so I'm not sure how that can be measured.

If you took non test first class matches then 'journeymen' like Bevan, Law and Hicks who plundered County and Sheffield have even better returns.

alf101 said:

Nice to see one of our greats being honoured.
Pity our own cricket board don't give "apartheid" players recognition.

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Where do you draw the line? Most 'anti-apartheid' players don't even get recognised for anything at all...its like they didn't even exist.