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When cricket wunderkind Kagiso Rabada decided at the age of 15 to make the sport his focal point, he vowed to one day “be the best cricketer in the world”.
Fast-forward six years – to Tuesday, to be exact – and Rabada sweeps the tables at the annual Cricket SA (CSA) awards ceremony, becoming the first cricketer to collect six gongs at the glittering function.
He bettered the feats achieved by his most senior and well-established Proteas team-mates, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, who have collected five each in
the past.
As he nonchalantly made his way to the stage for the half-a-dozenth time to collect the main award – SA Cricketer of the Year – the gangly 21-year-old was calmness personified.
Asked about his phlegmatic demeanour in circumstances that demanded at least a little more excitement, he responds: “Since deciding to make cricket my sport, I have always believed that I could be the best cricketer in world.
“Looking back now, the whole thing on Tuesday was so surreal.”
Rabada, still a work in progress, is the product of many hands – his parents, dad Dr Mpho and mum Florence Rabada; teachers at his primary school in Bryanston; and his cricket master, Derrick Smith, at St Stithians College; as well as a number of mentors in the cricket world.
The latter coterie includes Reuben Mandlazi, Bongani Ndaba, Ray Jennings, Enoch Nkwe, Wim Jansen and Ryan Cook, a list he reluctantly rattles out for fear “of leaving somebody out”.
The seed for cricket was planted around the age of nine when Rabada “caught glimpses of Allan Donald bowling”.
“From then on, I would pick up a cricket ball, run and bowl as quickly and fast as I could,” he reminisces.
Sports fanatic Rabada initially took part in rugby, tennis, athletics and cricket. He played as both a centre and a fly half in rugby; ran the 100m, 200m and hurdles; and competed in the long and high jump events in athletics.
Rabada grew up in a close and loving home in Fourways, Johannesburg, headed by his father, a general practitioner, and mother, who is an asset manager. He is the elder of two siblings and has a strong bond with younger brother Atlegang.
“For a 12-year-old, he is too focused. At this tender age, he has already decided that he wants to be a soccer player,” the cricketer explains. “He is very talented, likes sport, including cricket and a bit of rugby, but already knows that football is his thing.”
The hyperactive Rabada says he spends hours on end playing outside with his little brother.
“I like playing and I actually outlast him. He gets tired before I do,” he says.
It seems focus runs in the family as Rabada turned down an opportunity to play in the popular and lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL), choosing county cricket in England instead.
He says he has “had girlfriends but I don’t have one at the moment as I want to focus on my cricket”.
Last year, he joined Kent County for four weeks, where he played six T20 matches, two one-day games and one first-class match. This followed a Proteas ODI Tri-Series in the West Indies in June.
“The IPL is great, exciting, a lot of fun and one gets an opportunity to meet some great players. The money is also good and we all need money. But money is not everything,” he says.
“I decided to go and play county cricket primarily for four-day cricket, where the game originated, and get a feel of the culture.
“Besides, I have already been to India.”
Rabada was highly impressed with the English cricketing culture.
“You get a crowd of 2 000 people watching a four-day game. There is a good tradition and people ask for autographs; they carry big autograph books with hundreds of signatures. Some even send letters in the mail asking for autographs from top players all over the world,” he says.
“It was good to play with a different ball. I played more cricket in one month than at any other stage of my life.”
As this hectic, life-changing week petered out, Rabada – who counts Muhammad Ali, Steve Jobs, Cristiano Ronaldo, AB de Villiers, Will Smith and Mark Zuckerberg as his heroes – looked forward to lots of sleep, watching TV and going to the movies.
There is “nothing like a good movie”, he says, adding that he likes action and comedy, depending on his mood.
His current favourites are Inception, a science fiction heist thriller, and the crime thriller Savages.
Rabada’s unemotional and stolidly calm disposition is sure to carry him a long way, all the way to the dizziest heights of the gentlemen’s game.
