Andre Nel: The eccentric South African fast bowler who wore his heart on his sleeves

Andre Nel © Getty Images

Born on July 15, 1977, Andre Nel was a broad-shouldered fast bowler who often finished his bowling run-up at the batsman’s crease, staring into the latter’s eyes with pent up aggression and a wily smile. Prakash Govindasreenivasan recounts the life and career of one of the most eccentric characters of the sport.

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Some of the best quick bowlers through generations have had their own way of getting into a batsman’s skin. Mental disintegration and intimidation even before bowling a single delivery have always made for some of the most intriguing on-field battles. They gave rise to some of the best characters of the game. South Africa’s Andre Nel has been one such character.

At 6’6’’ with a muscular build, Nel could have made a career in football or rugby — the games that are popular in the country. But Nel chose cricket and wisely so.  The game allowed him to come face-to-face against his opponents. He tried to intimidate them, get on top of them. Aggressive instincts and theatrics all were part of Nel’s identity.

Born in Germiston, Transvaal, Nel was a brat who ran into trouble too often for his own good. With the ability to generate genuine pace coupled with his imposing character, Nel could have been one of the best to have played for South Africa, if not for his antics.

Nel would often look to frighten the batsmen but would often get carried away in the heat of the moment and go astray. His aggression was both his strength and his weakness.

Even before he made his international debut, Nel was embroiled in numerous controversies. In 2001, the 24-year-old Nel was seen crying after hitting Allan Donald with a nasty bouncer during a domestic match. Watching Donald leave the field due to his bouncer, Nel couldn’t control his emotions and burst into tears. He made an impressive international debut in the same year when South Africa toured Zimbabwe. In the first Test of the series, Nel managed five wickets in the match.

Nel got the opportunity to play in the side that had the likes of Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini and still make a big impact. Pollock relied on unmistakable line and length, Ntini on the angle that was created by his bowling action while Nel added value to the pace battery with his aggression and intimidation.

In his debut season of 2001, Nel was one of the five South African cricketers who were banned for smoking marijuana during their tour of the West Indies.

Controversies followed Nel like his shadow. In 2003, he was pulled up for drunken driving but was fortunate to keep his spot for the team that toured England in the same year. Lady luck came along when he got married and performed well against the West Indies at home towards the end of 2003. With 22 wickets to his kitty, he began to prove his worth in a formidable pace attack. Just when he was starting to cement his spot in the side, Nel suffered from a back injury that kept him out of the game for a while.

However, the level of energy stored in Nel was way too much to keep him out of action for too long. He marked his return with 15 wickets —(six wickets in the Centurion Test and nine wickets in the One-Day International (ODI) series) when South Africa hosted England in 2005. It was on this tour when he recorded his first five-wicket haul. In the fifth Test at Centurion, he ran through the English middle-order to keep his side in the game and eventually eke out a draw. He finished with figures of six for 81 in the first innings. Just three months later, he bettered his effort with another six-wicket haul — six for 32. This time it came in a win by an innings against the West Indies at Barbados when South Africa unleashed a raging bull on the home side.

One striking achievement that Nel would love to add to his CV is the fact that he managed to make Brian Lara, one of the world’s finest batsmen, his bunny by dismissing him on eight occasions in Tests © Getty Images

West Indies skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul won the toss and elected bat but Nel was in full swing to make the former regret his decision. He dismissed Chris Gayle in the very first over and Ramnaresh Sarwan in his fourth over to peg back the hosts. He picked up four wickets in the first innings and added six more from the second innings to achieve a ten-wicket haul in a Test for the first time. One striking achievement that Nel would love to add to his CV is the fact that he managed to make Brian Lara, one of the world’s finest batsmen, his bunny by dismissing him on eight occasions in Tests.

Nel showed great character when he was met with racist chants from the Australian crowd in South Africa’s down under towards the end of 2005. He emerged as a Boxing Day Test hero for South Africa, when he picked up four wickets of Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne. South Africa lost the Test by 184 runs though.

One of the most memorable moments of his career was his altercation against India’s very own eccentric character S Sreesanth. After Nel beat Sreesanth’s bat with a peach-of-a-delivery, he walked up and had a few words to offer the Indian pacer. Sreesanth replied by stepping out, hoisting Nel for a straight six and rubbing salt to wounds by celebrating it was a little dance gig of his own.

In ODIs, one saw Nel at his best in 2005 when he bagged as many as 29 wickets in 17 matches. In 2006, Nel was South Africa’s chief-architect with the ball when they annihilated India in Durban. After Jacques Kallis put on a fighting century to help South Africa post a decent total of 248, Nel picked up four important wickets to dent India’s chances of winning the game. He picked up the important wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina in the process. India were annihilated as they were bowled out for 91, thus losing by 157 runs.

His best limited overs international performance, however, came a year later in the 2007 World Cup against minnows Bangladesh. Nel dismissed four of the top-five batsmen to restrict Bangladesh to 251. South Africa lost the game by 67 runs.

Nel wasn’t express pace, but had enough ability to rattle the best batsmen in the business. But, he put in way too much into a delivery and more often than not, the initial burst of energy would be followed by a bit of erratic bowling.

In a career that spread across seven years, Nel featured in 36 Tests and 79 ODIs. In both formats of the game, Nel managed to go past the 100-wicket-mark, becoming the 11th South African to do so in Tests. He picked up 123 Test wickets at an average of 31.86 and 106 ODI wickets at an average of 27. 68.

With the emergence of a young tearaway bowler named Dale Steyn, Nel’s days in the South African unit were numbered. He played his final Test against England at The Oval in 2008 and retired from the sport the following year.

Nel was a man who wore his emotions on one sleeve and undying energy on the other. The shelf-life of a fast bowler is often considered to be lesser than that of a player of any other discipline. But having said that, it was Nel’s inability to strike a balance and exercise control over his emotions that truncated his career by a good few years.

(Prakash Govindasreenivasan is a reporter with CricketCountry. His Twitter handle is @PrakashG_89)