THE lack of social activities on the South African cricket tour that ended earlier this week in New Zealand, would have frustrated a lot of former players.
With COVID-19 restrictions in place and professional sport being played in a much more disciplined manner than years before, there was very little time for the players to enjoy some time away from the game.
South Africa and New Zealand are fierce competitors on the sporting field but love to socialise after a game and discuss sporting matters with a drink in hand.
The social aspect was definitely not neglected in the first cricket tours between these two countries after South Africa was readmitted to the international arena.
With their captain Ken Rutherford leading the way, the Kiwi cricketers thoroughly enjoyed the famous South African hospitality on their tour in 1994/’95.
In fact, Rutherford was a bit frustrated with some of his younger team members, who struggled to keep up with the many parties in between the matches.
At one point he even described his team as “socially still underdeveloped”, probably a tongue-in-cheek statement, but clearly he expected his mates to keep up with him on the social front.
This tour was in a time before social media but still Rutherford and co had a lot of explaining to do on their return to New Zealand.
The Kiwi administrators weren’t happy about some of the off the field incidents in South Africa and investigations were done.
They particularly weren’t happy about what they heard about some recreational smoking on a visit to a wine estate in Paarl.
There were many theme parties on the tour and it was not strange to come across players dressed up as famous characters in the team hotel.
Rutherford is a horse racing fanatic and got some of the players to go with him to the South African race tracks whenever they had some spare time.
Like any decent punter, he got upset when his bets didn’t pay off, but he got even angrier when he was the victim of some bad umpiring on the cricket field.
The umpires didn’t have the best of days in the Cape Town test and Rutherford and wicketkeeper Adam Parore were furious with the decisions they received when batting.
Rutherford had some choice words for the umpire and was ready to watch the replay of his dismissal later in the dressing room with the television remote control in hand. Pieces of that remote control are apparently still missing. A vending machine was the victim of Parore’s anger.
Where New Zealanders and South Africans get together they talk about rugby and this is no different on a cricket tour.
South Africa soon toured New Zealand after the visit of the Rutherford side and did a bit of “spying” for the Springboks a few months before the World Cup of 1995.
One of the players, Eric Simons, was spotted at an All Black practice with a video camera and Coach Laurie Mains asked him in a friendly manner to put it away.
Maybe Simons did get enough inside footage because we all know who won the Cup that year.
