A great career heading for a stirring finale

By Sharda Ugra

Three seasons ago, when Allan Donald picked up his 200th Test wicket, in the form of Sanath Jayasuriya, he was asked how much longer his career could stretch. The magnificent South African paceman was cautious, ``I hope to carry on... for a little while longer, maybe even think about 300 wickets. But I also want to leave the new ball in good hands for the future: the best news is that I'm sure I will.''

That `little while longer' has brought Donald to within ten wickets of the 300 and to probably the most difficult environment for his brand of bowling - India. As far as his other long term plans go, the South African attack looks to be in safe hands - those of Shaun Pollock, a first-timer to India and the lean bleached rookie Mornantau `Nantie' Hayward, who had toured here with the South African under-19 team several seasons ago.

The fate of the series, which will pitch a resilient South Africa against a `suddenly vulnerable' India, rests in Donald's hands and in his mind. Not only has he made the trip with the specific intention of getting closer to the 300 mark but also has the experience of knowing how to succeed in Indian conditions. In the words of the Aussie, Dean Jones, batsmen only set up matches, it is the bowlers that win them.

Donald, has in the past, said that he doesn't quite relish coming out and bowling on the brown turners of the sub- continent but that is not to say he doesn't know how. In the 1996 Titan Cup, he took 17 wickets to finish with the Man of the Series award even as his team lost another close final. He admitted then that he would have given up the award and the wickets for the overall title.

He now has the opportunity to make amends in a deeper way possible: ``even though that was one-dayers and I'm going to be playing the Tests here, I keep telling youngsters that it is a great learning curve bowling on the sub-continent...''

Donald's plans for the Test series - the South Africans have watched videos of the Indian `Batting Trinity's' dismissals in Australia - is simple: ``The key to bowling with the new ball would be to strike early and get the Indian top order. But that is going to take a lot of discipline and skill.''

Donald, now into his tenth season of international cricket, knows both about discipline and skill and has the accuracy and variation - two gifts that make mark the good from the great.

``In India you have to vary your pace. You don't have to run in and bowl as every ball as quickly as possible. Use your speed through the air if you are not getting anything from the wicket. You can also try a lot of different things but still maintain controlled aggression.''

The phrase `controlled aggression' may be faintly ominous, but on the field there is little that is subtle about Donald's demeanour. The reason the 33-year-old South African has kept the ball whistling past the ears of batsmen is because he has paced himself much like a marathon runner.

Unlike a lot of pacemen in the 70s and 80 for whom `pacing themselves' meant giving tough South Asian tours a miss, Donald has been a regular visitor on Test tours but has chosen the one- day jamborees with care.

``There is a certain stage in your career when you have to take a break. South Africa has been good to me. During the past three weeks I haven't played any of the one-dayers (against England).''

By the time he got into the Test series, he bowled a short sharp spell against the Board President's XI in order to work himself up into a Test-match rhythm. ``I can't be playing every single game. I can understand what Shaun Pollock might be feeling at the moment. He's playing a lot of cricket and must be tired... he is carrying a few niggles. But he has never been tired of hard work.''

Today, Donald is already South Africa's highest wicket-taker, and the first Hall of Famer from a whole bunch of cricketers after the end of the country's isolation from international cricket. His determined push to the `Three Hundred' is not just a personal ambition. It will also mark the first time that new South Africa will dig its flag on one of international cricket's more difficult summits.

``It would be fantastic to get 300 here but it is going to be very, very tough. I'm not working myself about completing the 300 here, because there is also Sri Lanka and other series up later,'' Donald said within a day of arriving in India. ``What happens after that I don't know. It will be nice to go home and play in front of your home crowd and finish there.''

What he is sure of is that he is not finished after the Indian Test series, even if he gets to 300 in the Bangalore Test. The question of whether he will make 2003 World Cup in his home land is still open. ``If my body allows me to do so, I may. But provided I stay fit. My future depends on that.''

In the meantime, Indians have a chance to witness first-hand the power and the glory of a remarkable fast bowling career heading for a stirring finale.

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