Donald names Tendulkar best batsman, admits to sledging, abusing

He says Tendulkar looked a class apart even in 1991 when South Africa came to India on their historical tour to end their international boycott due to apartheid in that country.

“His shot selection is superb, he just lines you up and can make you look silly. Everything is right in his technique and judgement. There isn’t a fault there. He is also a lovely guy, and over the years, I’ve enjoyed some interesting chats with him.”

Donald says Tendulkar was by far the better player than Lara and has handled success better. “I’ve known Brian since 1992 and I was saddened at the change in him over the years,” he says of his fellow star with Warwickshire.

“Sachin is in a different class to Lara as aprofessional cricketer. He is a model cricketer, and despite the intolerable pressures he faces back home, he remains a really nice guy.”

“Sachin is also the best batsman in the world, pulling away from Brian Lara every year,” he states.

Donald says, “We’d heard all about him modelling himself on Sunil Gavaskar, and he had the same neatness, the same time to spare, the same calmness — and a heavy bat.”

Recalling the 1998 princess Diana Memorial match at the Lord’s where Tendulkar cracked a century leading the World XI, Donald says Tendulkar flicked one of his deliveries from outside the off-stump to the mid-wicket fence even as he shouted to the fielder to take the catch.

“That day, he just toyed with us, and I was so impressed I said `good shot’, something I have never said to a batsman at any time in my career,” Donald says.

Referring to the second Test in Cape Town in the 1997 series where Tendulkar smashed 169, “It’s not often a fast bowler with his tail up can detach himself from allthe emotion of bowling in a Test match, to appreciate an opposition batsman, but you just had to, on this day in Cape Town,” he says. The 32-year-old Donald, the fifth fastest to reach 200 Test wickets — he has 265 victims from 54 Tests with a best haul of 8-71 — and the highest Test wicket-taker for his country, devotes much space to confrontations with India since the return to international fold in 1991.

Donald admits to abusive sledging tactics, especially in the infamous run-in with Rahul Dravid in the 1997 One-day tri-series final in Durban.

India were replying to South Africa’s 252 made in 40 overs in a rain-hit tie. Tendulkar hoisted Donald for a six, but he lost his cool when Dravid hit him for a six and a four in succession.

Donald admits that he had walked right up to Dravid, face to face, and used bad language. “The TV cameras had me in close-up, with everyone lip-reading my words.”

He writes, “Dravid’s eyes lit up when he saw me standing so close, I’ve done something similar manytimes in tense games like this one.”

“As I eye-balled Dravid, Hansie Cronje shouted at Dravid. A few of the other boys in the field picked up the aggressive vibes and they started to mouth off. It worked, because it revived us when it looked as if we were going to cop a hammering, and the crowd got behind us well,” he adds.

Donald justifies the behaviour saying, “that sort of confrontation goes down well in South African sport and some of the Indian cricketers didn’t like it.”

He says Azharuddin came in on Tendulkar’s dismissal and told Cronje what “I had said to Dravid was out of order.”

“Hansie told him to shut his mouth and get on with the game,” he says, adding, “after that, we all climbed onto Azza and gave him some fearful stick. In the end, they folded, we won the final (by 16 runs) after looking out of it.”

Donald’s attempts to make up with Dravid after the match were brushed aside by the Indian batsman with a “hard look”, but he was jolted when a fan of Indian origin placed aletter under his room castigating him for his “racist” behaviour. The bowler says he tore up that letter in anger but he and Cronje kept receiving many more calls and letters from the same person calling them names.

Donald says it was only an attempt to gain “a competitive edge that’s involved in playing top-class sport, the need to dominate an opponent before he does the same to you. It had absolutely nothing to do with race, it was a matter of testing out Dravid with verbals, to see if he could fight back at me. If he couldn’t take it in the heat of battle, then he shouldn’t be out there.”

The bowler hailing from Bloemfontein, the Afrikaan heartland, says he was never in the habit of getting involved in racist comments.

“I believe the issue was about the Indians being less confrontational than us, and getting disconcerted by some typical South African verbal bullying,” he adds.