Recalled Gibbs promises more professional attitude after 'biggest mistake in my life'

Paul Martin

Herschelle Gibbs is already proving that his once happy-go-lucky attitude to cricket is a thing of the past -- as is his temptation to get his hands on money for under-performing.

The day before his first Test match, back since his six-month ban, Gibbs practiced far longer than his colleagues, then spoke of his new and much more professional attitude to the game.

"Hopefully," he said, "it'll be a new fresh start and a much more professional and better one."

He described his conspiracy with captain Hansie Cronje to score fewer than 20 runs in the fifth one-dayer in India last March as "probably the biggest mistake that I've made in my life." He added: "I, and all the other cricketers around the world, will not be making the same mistake again."

Gibbs says he had not expected to be recalled so soon after his six-month ban expired at midnight on New Year's eve.

He had, though, had an inkling of it on Sunday morning when chairman of selectors Rushdi Magiet telephoned him and told him: "Prepare yourself mentally."

Magiet had not made it clear if Gibbs was to be selected for the Second Test against Sri Lanka starting in Cape Town on Tuesday. But he did tell Gibbs to report to the practice session.

The country's main news agency had earlier been suggesting that the opener would be picked, but only as 12th man to "carry out the drinks".

That indeed was as much as Gibbs could have expected. He says he had thought Magiet was only planning to pick him for the one-day internationals starting later in the month, not for the second and third Tests.

But Gibbs added: "I'm here now and I obviously have to make another opportunity work. It's great to be representing my country again, with all the honour and prestige that goes with that."

Gibbs stayed on long after his team-mates had left training, opting for extra batting practice with coach Graham Ford and assistant coach, former fast-bowler Corrie van Zyl. Interestingly he was not practising how to hit the ball – but rather how to leave it judiciously alone.

"It's just to tighten up, to know that you're leaving well and that you're at least getting into the line of the ball."

Leaving well alone is a lesson he wishes he had learned in his off-the-field dealings as well, not least in those with his former captain. If he had turned down Cronje’s offer of fifteen thousand dollars to score less than 20 in Nagpur last March, he would have been a good deal financially better off, and have suffered far less ignominy and trauma.

But reverses in life can either strengthen or destroy a person, and I get the impression that Gibbs will have gained a great deal in maturity as a result of the scandal. It may make him an even more formidable batsman.

After his extra net practice, he has already been showing his irrepressible sense of cheeky fun. "It was good to get in there again and see if they (coaches Ford and Van Zyl) still have the speed that they had."

Meanwhile, the decision to recall Gibbs to the South African team literally hours after his six-month ban expired (as predicted by rediff.com in two articles last month) is already causing major controversy in the country, and abroad.

There is no-one in South Africa who does not recognise the superb abilities of Gibbs. He is also a sunny and fun character, who enjoys the night-life and the social interaction of touring. He is, in short, a great guy to have in any team.

But that’s not where the matter ends. The problem is the impression that his return creates in South Africa and in world cricket and political circles. Before his recall, South African newspapers had been calling for him to be kept out.

They had used two arguments. First, the team has done so well lately without him: whitewashing New Zealand in the one-dayers, beating them in the Tests, and then dominating the first Test against Sri Lanka. Was it fair to tinker with a winning team?

Second, was it right, asked the papers, to bring back into world cricket a man who admitted agreeing to under-perform in an international match, when India in particular had imposed far tougher bans on four of their players?

There had already been protests from some Test-playing nations when Gibbs and Henry Williams were given supposedly "light" sentences.

In mitigation though the disciplinary committee chairman, retired judge Mervyn King (no relation to Match-fixing Commissioner ex-judge-president Edwin King), had pointed out that Gibbs in the end did not keep to his corrupt agreement with Cronje (he went on to make 74 from just 53 balls in Nagpur).

The disciplinary inquiry also noted that Gibbs had earlier gone to the King Commission and admitted his deal with Cronje, when nothing had yet been proved (though his name had been mentioned in the cell-phone tape transcripts attributed to Cronje and a bookmaker).

Clearly, his fine of around eight thousand US dollars would not of itself have been seen as a strong punishment. Gibbs did lose a lot of potential income, though, during his six-month absence, and also forfeited sponsorships.

Other mitigating factors, said the disciplinary committee, were that the players had come heavily under Cronje’s spell; that they had only conspired but not actually done the deed; and that the tough rules against corrupt cricket practices agreed by the International Cricket Commission (ICC) in 1999, had not yet been properly communicated to the players (which was either almost incredible inefficiency or else only a legal fiction).

It’s hardly surprising that at the pre-match press conference in Cape Town, it was the chairman of selectors Rushdi Magiet who did the talking, not the normally loquacious Gibbs, who remained silent.

Magiet’s point was that, though it was "not an easy decision", he had no choice but to pick the best openers available, and Gibbs is now available. On this, at least on a purely technical level, he is right, even taking into account that the stylish 23-year-old Boeta Dippenaar scored a maiden century against New Zealand last month.

Before his ban Gibbs, aged 26, had averaged 32.29 runs per Test innings including an undefeated knock of 211 against New Zealand. He had triumphantly overcome a poor and nervous start to his international career (when he was considered by some to be in the team because he is of mixed race and the selectors were under huge political pressure to pick players who were not white).

The opener has been in superb form in the last month – the product of a decision to throw caution to the wind and to play his natural attacking game again. Anyone who saw Gary Kirsten and Gibbs annihilate the much-vaunted Eastern Province attack in a one-dayer last week would have been enthralled by the prospect of these two walking to the same Newlands home wicket in a Test-match.

With Kirsten’s 180 against Sri Lanka last week, there is no doubt these two will be a potent force for years to come in Tests and one-day internationals.

But is it a case of putting on-the-field success above the greater interests of the game? On this, at least, the jury is out.

The match-fixing scandal

Mail Cricket Editor