After Sarfraz Ahmed incident, Allan Donald recalls his ‘worst moment’ involving Rahul Dravid

After Pakistan cricket captain Sarfraz Ahmed was handed a four-match ban recently for racially abusing a South African cricketer during a 50-overs game, the topic of misconduct on the field has come back to the headlines. Sarfraz called the home team’s Andile Phehlukwayo “kale” (black guy) during the second ODI in Durban after failing to contain his frustration over a cricketing moment and it was caught in the stump mic.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) banned the player for four games and he was asked to fly back home by the Pakistan Cricket Board with veteran Shoaib Malik replacing him as the skipper. Legendary South African fast bowler Allan Donald recently spoke on the matter in an interview said the ICC did the right thing by penalising Sarfraz for his conduct which he felt was “incredibly personal”.

However, Donald, who was called the ‘White Lightning’ during his playing days and captured over 600 international wickets after making debut at 25, also had similar moments in his career. And today, he is apologetic about it. The former fast bowler was speaking about an ugly incident that had also unfolded at the same Durban in February 1997. South Africa were playing India in the final of a triangular tournament (Zimbabwe were the third team).

It was in effect the second final after the first was washed out and batting first, the Proteas led by the late Hansie Cronje scored 278 in 50 overs and the visitors were needed to score 251 in 40 overs after rain disruptions. India had lost opener Sourav Ganguly early but captain Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid brought India’s chase on track and looked threatening. It was during this innings that Dravid, who otherwise is known to be a ground stroke-maker, hit Donald for a six over long on.

An irate Donald came up to the batsman to utter some expletives. Even though Dravid’s 84 off 94 balls on that night could not take India home, the world felt worse for Donald more for his churlish behaviour.

It was way over top, says Donald

“My sledging of Rahul Dravid in 1997 was way over the top. The way I said what I did to Dravid was definitely not on but I was willing to do something that might bring me a wicket. Two overs later, we got him out and eventually won that ODI final against India in Durban,” Donald recalled the incident while talking to Sport24.

Regretting the way he spoke to one of cricket’s finest gentlemen, Donald said he went up to Dravid after the match and the latter didn’t want to speak to him and the Indian team was also not happy with him. He said the matter was sorted out in the times to come and felt that the match referee would have given him a year’s ban because of his behaviour. “That is probably the worst moment I have ever been involved in,” the former cricketer, 52, said.

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