Ken Borland

Rugby made the front pages of the celebrity magazines this week with the news that Prince Louis, the three-year-old son of Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, loves playing the sport although his mother is a little concerned with how he always seems to be “in the middle of everything”.

It reminds one of South Africa’s very own modern-day prince of the backline, Lukhanyo Am. But while Prince Louis’ involvement is described as “kamikaze” by his mother, Am’s impact on the rugby field is anything but.

The much-loved Springbok and Sharks centre is a hugely influential player and leader for both teams. But he fulfils both roles with such calm, unflustered assurance that he seems to be gliding around the field, and he is definitely someone who leads by quiet, stellar example rather than by stirring words.

And his own mother, Zukiswa, still features large in his life. As do his siblings.

Now an international star and a certainty for most sensible peoples’ World XV (some even tipped him to be World Player of the Year for 2021), Am is a celebrity in his own right and in his own modest, self-effacing way.

With Sharks CEO Eduard Coetzee confirming that their salary to Am is based on their belief that he is the best outside centre in the world, the 28-year-old could spend his time away from rugby doing any manner of glamourous, exotic pursuits. But in lieu of the bright lights of fame, he returns to family and the values that were inculcated in him from a young age.

“Off the field, I’m very much a family man. My Mom and my siblings, and my extended family, that’s where my heart is,” Am told The Citizen. “Whenever I get a break from rugby, with all the travel we do anyway, I don’t take vacations.

“If I want to feel refreshed, I go where I came from – King Williams Town – and just relax with my family.”

While he is in Durban, on duty for the Sharks as he has been since joining the franchise in 2015, Am has similarly calming ways of getting away from rugby.

“The coaches are usually drilling us in training,” Am smiles, “so days off are all about recovery, relaxing and just spending time off the legs. We are very fortunate with the weather here in Durban and having the ocean right here. A good beach walk really helps me to switch off.”

And it’s little wonder that Am needs time to switch off because that astute rugby brain is constantly organising, analysing and adapting to what comes up on the field. Am reads the game so brilliantly that one is reminded of how Naas Botha used to pull the strings for the Bulls and the Springboks back in the day. Am does not use his boot as often, but his vision in terms of defence and attack is second to none.

The fierce focus the De Vos Malan High School product brings to the game applies to both matchday and the training field.

“Now that I’ve managed to establish myself I’m in a really happy space,” Am says. “My focus is on my goals, which are controlling my performance and improving my game each time I am on the field.

“As soon as the season is starting with the Sharks, my focus is on being the best I can be and then transferring that to the national side. But I don’t look too far ahead because of the different challenges we face nowadays and there is always the risk of injuries.

“I just work on being the best I can be. I’ve always been that way, my focus is on my performance and doing the right things right. Making sure everything is in place to do that. That is what has worked really well for me in the past.

“I take it a game at a time, and then focus on the next one. I analyse myself, where I am at in my game and where I want to be. I just try to tick those small boxes,” Am said.

Despite being raised in the troubled, poverty-stricken surrounds of Zwelitsha in the 1990s, Am was a lover of sport from a young age.

“At school, I was a sports fanatic, those are the memories I have of growing up. Playing cricket, watching athletics, the most fun was always on Saturdays.

“I played cricket until the end of high school. It was a 90s thing: cricket, soccer and rugby were everywhere in the township and when I went to high school I was already comfortable in all three sports.

“I was actually very passionate about my cricket, but as I got older, so rugby took over me. I guess because I was strong at a young age,” Am said.

He also has a most mature head on young shoulders, a characteristic which comes through in aspects of his life outside of rugby.

“Relaxing at home, I listen to tunes. But I guess I’m an old soul because I like things like deep house. But I have no specific favourite genre, I’ll pick whatever goes with my emotion at the time.

“Whatever will calm or relax me, whatever is relevant to how I’m feeling at the time, is what I’ll listen to.”

It’s a thoroughly sensible way of looking at the world. But then again, Lukhanyo Am is a thoroughly sensible person; a top-class rugby player and a wonderful human being.

Keegan Petersen revealed himself as one of South Africa’s brightest batting talents in the series against India, but the man who made the No.3 position his own has now suffered the disappointment of being ruled out of the tour to New Zealand due to a positive Covid test. This does, however, potentially open the way for an exciting young batsman like Ryan Rickelton to make his long-awaited debut.

Petersen, who is asymptomatic, has been replaced in the squad by Western Province talent Zubayr Hamza.

But Petersen’s misfortune, announced on the morning of the team’s departure for New Zealand, could well be just the break the 25-year-old Rickelton has been waiting for. The Central Gauteng Lions batsman has been part of the Proteas squad since the tour to Pakistan a year ago, but is yet to catch a game.

Rickelton has been in exceptional form in the domestic four-day competition this season, and scores of 90 and a match-saving 102 not out for the Lions against Western Province at Newlands last weekend took his tally this summer to 473 runs in five innings, at an average of 118.25, with three centuries.

But as much as one would like to see a new talent on the international stage, you have to wonder if the Proteas selectors won’t use Petersen’s absence as a lifeline for Aiden Markram.

Markram has scored just 140 runs in his last nine innings, with one half-century, and there was a strong possibility he was going to lose his opening spot in New Zealand to the uncapped Sarel Erwee, who is averaging 86 in four-day cricket this season.

But both Markram and Erwee could conceivably fill Petersen’s No.3 spot. Rickelton is also a top-order batsman, comfortable in the top three, but choosing two uncapped batsmen in Erwee and Rickelton could be too much of a risk for the selectors, so it will be interesting to see which option they choose.

You know you have made an impression on the cricket field when AB de Villiers tweets about how excited he is to watch you bat, Ravi Shastri says you remind him of his childhood hero and Ian Chappell wonders why you weren’t playing Test cricket earlier.

Keegan Petersen was so impressive in South Africa’s Test triumph over India, taking the Man of the Series award for his 276 runs at an average of 46, scoring 41 more runs than anyone else, that the world has taken notice of the new number three’s performance against the top-ranked side.

De Villiers said “Keegan Petersen CAN play! I’m very excited with the composure, skill and technique I’ve seen against one of the best attacks in the world.”

Shastri, India’s former captain and the coach who made them a dominant force before he stepped down last year, called Petersen “a great world player in the making. My childhood hero Gundappa Viswanath comes to mind.”

Viswanath played 91 Tests for India and scored 6080 runs at an average of 41.93 between 1969 and 1983. He was a wristy stylist who was at his best when the conditions were at their toughest.

Former Australian captain Chappell, in his column for CricInfo, wondrered where Petersen has been all this time. “He has all the requirements of a Test No. 3, including a wide range of shots that he is prepared to play, plus a solid defence. So why is he only playing now?” he asked.

Out of the public eye, Petersen’s new-found fame has led to him being swamped with well-wishers, especially in his home town of Paarl, where he went with his family after the Test series.

“I don’t think my phone has ever been as busy as it has been for the last few days,” Petersen told The Citizen. “To have such legends talking about you, anything they say is really nice.

“It’s been a bit of a star-struck few days. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. My whole family and friends came to see me in Paarl, but I’m not complaining.

“It is their honour too. I am a product of my community and I owe a lot to them,” Petersen said.

Educated at New Orleans Secondary School, Petersen popped into his old school last week as the guest of honour to welcome the new pupils. It’s a close-knit school, well-known for its family values as much as the many sports stars they have produced.

And, in terms of his life outside of cricket, Petersen makes it clear that family is his priority.

“All my time outside of cricket goes to my family, my wife and three kids – two boys and a girl – because I’m away enough with cricket,” Petersen said.

“We enjoy watching movies, Netflix, having a braai or potjiekos. I’m not very outgoing but we enjoy going to the beach.”

Speaking of family, Petersen credits his father, Dirkie, as having been the major influence on his cricketing career. Currently a teacher at New Orleans SS, Petersen senior was a talented all-round sportsman playing fullback for the SA Tertiary Institutes rugby team and cricket for Paarl, alongside Adrian Kuiper and Marais Erasmus.

“He’s always been there through my career and probably knows my game better than I do,” Petersen junior said. “I don’t think he can throw anymore because he’s thrown me so many balls.

“I’m so grateful to him. He was a wicketkeeper/batsman, a decent player, but I only watched him at the back end of his career in club cricket.”

The 28-year-old Petersen said there were plenty of nerves to get over during the Test series against India. But he’s the sort of character who is comfortable pushing himself and rising to challenges.

He was a prolific scorer for Boland after making his debut for them in 2011/12, but struggled to gain a regular starting place in a powerful Cape Cobras batting line-up. So he moved to Bloemfontein for greater opportunity and flourished for the Knights. Last season he moved to the Dolphins – “to upskill myself in a new challenge on turning pitches” – and helped them to the four-day title.

Those butterflies were flying in perfect formation by the end of the Test series as any questions over Petersen’s place in the Proteas team were firmly erased.

The Proteas may be performing at a renewed level of excellence at the moment, but Cricket South Africa continue to come hard at head coach Mark Boucher, who has now been formally charged with “gross misconduct” over the allegations of racism made against him by the Social Justice and Nation-Building report.

In what one CSA insider described as “an aggressive attack” on Boucher, the record-breaking wicketkeeper/batsman was served with charges under the organisation’s disciplinary code the day before the ODI series against India began.

Having pulled off an improbable 2-1 win in the Test series against India after losing the first match, the Proteas then registered an impressive victory in the first ODI in Paarl in midweek.

But the CSA Board’s antagonistic attitude towards their own national team and management was shown when they failed to send out any form of congratulatory message to the captain, players or coaching staff for beating the then No.1 side in Test cricket. CSA have made a habit in recent years of sending out congratulatory statements for even minor triumphs.

The SJN report accused Boucher of discrimination and using racial slurs relating to Paul Adams’ complaint of the Proteas team using a song referring to him as “a brown shit in the ring” during their fines meetings back in the late 1990s.

CSA on Thursday afternoon confirmed that Advocate Terry Motau (SC) would chair the disciplinary hearing, with the parties meeting on January 26 to determine a timetable for proceedings.

Legal sources have suggested that CSA’s already depleted kitty could be emptied even further if they try to use the SJN report to dismiss either Boucher or director of cricket Graeme Smith. Informed sources have indicated enquiries are still being made into whether Smith should also be charged, but that matter is complicated by the fact that the former Proteas captain is technically an independent contractor.

Lawyers representing several respondents implicated in the report have labelled it as “flawed” and have pointed out that the ombudsman, Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, admitted himself that his findings were “tentative” and that he could not make “definitive findings” based on “untested evidence”.

The impartiality of the lawyers involved has also been called into question because 260 paragraphs of the final report were merely copied-and-pasted directly from the complainants’ submissions.

The fact that such a significant accusation as racism has now been publicly made against Boucher and Smith is bound to lead to major legal challenges.

“They are not going to go quietly, they’re not just fighting for their jobs but also to clear their names,” a source close to both former Proteas stars said.