Leading lights forge partnership: Rice & Kapil mean business

The font on the park hoardings isnt large,but the luminosity makes every word legible even in a fast moving vehicle.

If you drive down to Linksfield,a quiet and cozy locality in Johannesburg,the first thing you notice is the white street-lights that lace the parks,hotels,hospitals and school areas. The harsh,bright,yellow illumination of the city is left behind,as retinas subconsciously contract,adjusting itself to the sudden softness. The font on the park hoardings isnt large,but the luminosity makes every word legible even in a fast moving vehicle. Switch on savings, says the jingle.

A few more well-lit hoardings claiming a revolution in street-light technology leads to the doorstep of the main office. It reads: C Rice & Associates on the handle-bar. Directly below,a second signboard reads,C Rice: Sport & Merchandising. Indoors,in his office-cum-home,Clive Rice South Africas first cricket captain to tour India does it all. From organising golf tours,arranging safaris,selling fax machines to reducing the effects of global warming,Rice is buzzing with business acumen and entrepreunerial ideas.

I was always an entrepreneur,even in my cricket playing days. How else will you explain a 42-year old man playing cricket on debut? Rice,at 61,says. He not only made his debut,but also became one of the most recognisable post-apartheid sporting heroes,that too when he was well past his 40s. One of the most memorable photographs in cricket from the 90s is that of Rice gratefully folding his hands along with 10 other Protea players,thanking the 100,000 plus supporters at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata for generously welcoming them back to the international stage.

It was beyond overwhelming. We landed in Calcutta,and there was a line from the airport in the outskirts to the team hotel in the city centre to greet us. If we thought that was touching,the match at the Eden Gardens brought us to tears, Rice says.

So how did the Clive Rice the entrepreneur come about? I was always one. I wish I could have been 21 when I made by debut. But South Africa wasnt allowed due to the apartheid and I had to spend a lot of my peak days in the cricketing wilderness. I did get to play in Kerry Packers series and hence managed to keep my cricketng ambitions going. Coming to play in India was unbelievable. But after that,I had to make a living. He played just three ODIs in international cricket,before he found his calling in the family business.

I was in the telecom business of selling faxes for nearly 12 years,but my wife Susan expanded it to golf tours and safaris. But my real devotion is to changing street-light technology, Rice says,before adding,It is the best technology in the world. We are the world leaders in street lights because of the parabolic reflectors. Envirolight (his patent) is white light and doesnt consume anywhere near the energy that the high-pressure sodium does. Weve already expanded in Africa to places like Egypt and we have a new business partner in India,Kapil Dev.

While Kapils business of setting up new-age lights for cricket stadiums got Rice interested in a cross-country partnership,their old rivalry-cum-respect blossomed into an off-field business deal. We hope to hit the Indian markets very soon. Kapil is our partner and business associate in India,and he knows that the country could do with our technology, Rice says.

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So what has happened to the faxes and cricket since the street-light fixation started? Well,the faxes have moved online. I set up email addresses for offices so that their faxes can reach the internet mailbox directly. As far as the cricket is concerned,I havent been following it very closely,Im more bothered with setting up golf tours to be honest. But I do know that India isnt playing too well. Can you confirm that for me? Rice asks.

Cricket may be the only career option that he missed out on,but as far as Clive Rice the multi-tasker is concerned,the limelight shines almost as bright as his energy-saving street-lights.