Clive Rice mastered cricket, but could not conquer time

Remembering a man who was deprived of greatness by the discriminatory South African system of his era.

Clive Rice, the champion all-rounder during South Africa’s apartheid-troubled years and their first captain on return to international cricket, passed away on July 28, 2015 — on Garry Sobers’ 79th birthday. Abhishek Mukherjee remembers a man who was deprived of greatness by the discriminatory South African system of his era.

Some of the all-time great batsmen played in the 1980s, and there was no shortage of champions with the ball. West Indies dominated the sport throughout the decade the way no other team had in history till then. And yet, for all their dominance, they never had an ace all-rounder since Garry Sobers. Viv Richards, Larry Gomes, and Carl Hooper bowled a bit; and Malcolm Marshall and Roger Harper did play the occasional innings.

No, West Indies did not have a nominee in the decade that is referred to by many as one of all-rounders, for it marked many an individual brilliance of Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, and Richard Hadlee, in no particular order.

But the quartet could easily have been a quintet, for there lay in wilderness a balding man who smashed runs at will, who hurled the red orb with reasonable success. A haul of 26,331 runs at 41 with 48 hundreds and 930 wickets at 22, mostly for Nottinghamshire and Transvaal, speaks volumes of Clive Rice’s contribution to both teams.

Rice and Hadlee formed a formidable duo for Nottinghamshire in the 1980s. While Hadlee spearheaded the bowling, Rice was the batsman who often bowled into the wind. He told CricketCountry in an interview: “There would be days when I would suddenly dominate with the ball and pick up six wickets. Just like we have [Jacques] Kallis now, he is a batsman who can bowl, but not a frontline bowler. For the Notts, I was more of a batsman than a bowler.”

[read-also]311051,29222[/read-also]

Rice was named Notts captain in 1980 following a stint with Kerry Packer’s pack. He responded with 1,297 runs at 42 and 58 wickets at 20. In 1981 he led Nottinghamshire to the title for the first time since 1907. They were runners-up in 1984, and won again in 1987 — all under Rice. Meanwhile, he converted Transvaal into a menacing unit (they called Transvaal Mean Machine in South African domestic circuit). It seems almost redundant that he was named Wisden Cricketer of The Year in 1981.

However, Rice had already emerged as one of the leading all-rounders before that. He was named South African Cricket Annual Cricketer of the Year at a mere 22 (he would be honoured thrice more, all after 1985). By 1981 he was awarded the Wetherall Award for Leading All-Rounder in English First-Class Cricket thrice.

Rice’s finest hour? That was probably the contest against Hampshire at Bournemouth in July 1981. Malcolm Marshall, Keith Stevenson, and Trevor Jesty bowled out the tourists for 143 in 49 overs. Tim Robinson scored 10. Nobody else managed even that. Batting at No. 4, Rice slammed 105 not out.

Rice took new ball with Hadlee. Hampshire were cruising at 147 for 4 when Rice struck. He finished with 4 for 50 to restrict Hampshire to a 47-run lead. Unfortunately, there was no stopping Marshall and Stevenson a second time.

In short, he had achieved everything, everything in his career — barring that elusive Test cap — for no fault of his own. He came agonisingly close, for his rise was meteoric: he rose through the ranks in Transvaal, and was selected to tour Australia in 1971-72. The tour never happened. In fact, no South African tour happened anywhere for the next two decades.

Cricket was in the family, but somewhat oddly it skipped a generation. Clive Edward Butler Rice was the grandson of the spectacularly named Philip Salkeld Syndercombe Bower (born in Holtby, York), who played for Oxford. Bower was, in turn, the great-nephew of Christopher Nevill, a Cambridge all-rounder.

Rice was 21 when the ban started. He was 42 when it was lifted. He could not have been born at a worse time. Vintcent van der Bijl was a victim of the time as well, for he was a year younger to Rice; unfortunately, he did not play on long enough to be a part of the India tour of 1991-92. The others at least got Test cap.

“Yes, we were optimistic that things would be sorted out and we would get the opportunity to play Test cricket soon. That optimism carried us along right through to 1991 when we returned to play against India. By then I was 42,” Clive later admitted. There was no angst or bitterness; only a sense of void.

He had the honour of becoming the first to become South Africa’s first ODI captain (and their first in international cricket in the post-Apartheid era), and rightfully so. It took him three matches to register their first win. Rice did not play international cricket anymore.

But it was worth the experience. Calcutta exceeded Rice’s expectations: she welcomed the South Africans in open arms, from airport to hotel to roads to the historic ground, where Rice and his men were greeted like few have been at the humongous coliseum.

But the performances were not enough for the selectors. Kepler Wessels was named captain as Rice was dropped for the squad for World Cup 1992. “That was a real kick in the teeth. There was a whole political issue around it … At the Board level there were a lot of issues and I became a scapegoat.” This time the emotions was unmistakable, and rightly so.

Unlike most others of his generation, the hunger lasted till he was 45, and unlike most others he did not cut down his bowling. Even at 43 he demolished Eastern Province (he was playing for the Jonty Rhodes-led Natal then, alongside his old foe Malcolm Marshall) with 2 for 7 and 6 for 35.

Following retirement, Rice became extremely vocal against South African administration. He blasted the politicians for coming in “with their own political agenda”, and blamed them directly for South Africa losing talents like Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott to England.

Outspoken he was, and outspoken he remained on all topics. For example, he had no doubt whatsoever that both Hansie Cronje and Bob Woolmer were murdered, and was not one to swallow his words on the topic — certainly not during his interview to Arunabha Sengupta for CricketCountry.

Rice was a keen golfer and car-racer, and was instrumental in setting up his wife Susan’s Sports and Bush Safari. He coached Notts, and also served as coach and mentor back home: Shaun Pollock, Jonty Rhodes, Lance Klusener, and Kevin Pietersen all came under his tutelage at some point of time.

Unfortunately, the Emperor of Maladies caught up with him, and he passed away despite a robotic radiation treatment for a malignant brain tumour at Health Care Global Hospital, Bangalore, in 2015.

It could not have been a better day, for it was the 79th birthday of Garry Sobers — the man who he could well have succeeded as the leading all-rounder in the world. Instead, he had to be content with the relatively unheralded world of domestic cricket.

Let us, however, finish this with a smile. He did a commercial for Olympic Sportsway, where he was covered by only a cricket bat, causing a serious stir in conservative South Africa. The commercial was banned, but Olympic’s sports range sold out in six weeks.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)

• 
• 
•