Issue of provincialism a complicated one

The crowd at the World Cup opener between the Proteas and West Indies provided a reminder of one of the main differences between South African rugby and cricket.

In one sport provincialism is rife, in the other it appears almost non-existent.

For some reason, a Springbok rugby player is always talked about and referred to in terms of his provincial identity. Hard though they may try, it seems incredibly hard for a Durban (or Pretoria or Bloemfontein for that matter) crowd to distinguish a Robbie Fleck or Bob Skinstad wearing Springbok jersey and playing for "our" team from the Fleck and Skinstad wearing the enemy outfit of Western Province.

We have seen it happen regularly over the years. Perhaps the most infamous incident was when Percy Montgomery was almost jeered off the field at Loftus in a Tri-Nations clash with Australia four years ago. Poor Monty could not put a foot right that afternoon and the reaction of the crowd just exacerbated the situation.

It was not the only time that this sort of pettiness has raised its ugly head in a test match. Skinstad has been jeered at venues outside of Cape Town while wearing the green and gold, even occasionally while he was the Springbok captain. It will be interesting to see how the people of Bloemfontein and Johannesburg react to him now that he is a Cat.

There are several reasons for this reaction, with perceptions about the ability, or inability, of the selectors and national coach of the day ranking high among them. It was not so much Montgomery being booed at Loftus in 1998, but the coach of the time, Nick Mallett, who had resisted the calls of the media and public to replace the WP player with someone less inclined to make costly mistakes.

Yet it is not the only reason, for if it were, then surely Lance Klusener, the man who turned out to be the nearly nearly hero at Newlands, would have been the target of a couple of boos while on his way out to bat against the West Indies.

Even if his one-day career average is amazingly high, Klusener's recent form at both international level and in the warmup games to the World Cup did not make him an automatic choice.

Given that he was playing away from his provincial home ground of Kingsmead, we might, had we used the rugby experience as a yardstick, have expected him to attract the odd derisory jeer and maybe a bit of cynical applause when he did finally start middling the ball.

It did not happen, chiefly because he is a cricketer and not a rugby player. You just do not appear to have the same geographical pettiness in cricket as you have in rugby.

To the wider South African public, Jonty Rhodes will always be a Protea rather than a Natalian.

The people of Durban do not respond to Jacques Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs in the same way they do the flashiness and flamboyance of WP rugby players.

Indeed, while watching the Christmas test against Pakistan in Durban, I attracted a rather confused reaction from people sitting in my vicinity when it was pointed out that the national top order is indistinguishable from the WP one.

For some reason provincial representation is made a story by rugby writers, but not cricket writers. Hardly a national squad or team announcement goes by without the story concentrating in part on how many WP, Natal or Blue Bull players there are. Even when they themselves have admonished "their" team for poor performances during the season, the more parochial provincial writers make a fuss when the side they write about does not have many Springboks.

It is changing, but ever so slowly. Hopefully, in this year of the World Cup, that change will accelerate as there can be little doubt that provincialism has helped contribute to the perennial instability that keeps South African rugby from fulfilling its potential.

The new, or maybe not so new, slogan doing the rounds is one that goes something to the effect of "Put South Africa/Springboks first". The result of Sunday night's game may not have gone the way South Africans would have hoped, but there was no reason for any of the South African players to believe they enjoyed anything but the wholehearted support of the entire nation.

Instead of having his task made more difficult by the many in the crowd who must on pure logical grounds have questioned his inclusion, Klusener stepped up to the plate and, to the reverberating cries of "Zulu, Zulu, Zulu", showed everyone present just why the selectors had so much faith in him.

Of course, part of the reason for the lack of provincialism in South African cricket probably lies in the fact that the national players hardly play provincial cricket. You destroy provincial cricket, say the cynics, and of course provincialism will also disappear.

At least South African domestic rugby, and the intense rivalry that appears to exist at that level and is fuelled no doubt by the media, attracts consistent decent crowds. Which is one of the reasons that I have reservations about the lengths to which we should go to in ensuring that all the top players get Super 12 exposure.

As former French great Serge Blanco put it to me during the recent overseas tour, players must always be asked to play for the jersey first and foremost, they must be prepared to die for their club (in our case provincial/regional) colours.

It is not entirely clear how a system which jumps players between provinces on a loan basis the week before a tournament starts helps achieve this. But that, as the old saying goes, should be the subject of a later column, for it is a complicated issue.