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The batsman’s fine technique and mental tenacity have worked in his favour
When news filtered through about his surprise selection for the Proteas on Thursday, Zubayr Hamza had more pressing matters at hand.
The Cobras batsman was part of the University of the Western Cape team that upset hosts Stellenbosch by four wickets, after bowling them out for 76 to make the A final of the University Sport SA Week, Hamza’s contribution an unbeaten 10 in the chase.
Depending on who one speaks to, the 23-year-old’s selection is either a bolt from the blue or has been a long time coming. Having known him for almost five years, his coach and former Proteas batsman Ashwell Prince is firmly in the latter camp.
“We always knew down here in the Cape that he had the potential to go on and play for the Proteas,” said Prince.
“He is the first of a new bunch coming through. As a squad, we were really excited and happy for him – we’ve got a group chat going and the messages came pouring in for him.”
A significant part of why Hamza’s call-up, which – fittingly for a batsman – would make him the 100th Protea to play test cricket, has surprised some in that it seems to be based more on historical than on current form.
The former Rondebosch Boys’ High and SA Schools player scored 823 runs at 69 (three centuries) in four-day cricket last season, and averaged more than 50 in the South Africa A tour to India after overcoming a duck in his first innings.
But this season, the Cape Cobras number three batsman has only scored 255 runs in five games (two 50s) and averages a lowly 31.87, something Prince explained this way: “It can happen to anybody. He’s got into 30s, 40s and 50s, but maybe played too aggressively and got himself out. If he is honest with himself, the bowlers haven’t got him out with good deliveries; he got too aggressive.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about, but, at the end of the day, he is an accomplished batsman who can play against pace and against spin. He has been exposed to all conditions and he has ticked all the boxes. As a player, you want to know you can play against someone bowling at 150km an hour or leg spin – you build a library of having done well.”
Prince, the last of the rearguard action batsmen of his time, also gave further insight into the unseen stuff the selectors see in Hamza.
“Different coaches look for different things in players. I like to look for things others can’t see. The things most people ask are: ‘Does he have a good technique? Is he quite easy on the eye?’ Those are not the things I look for.
“He’s got a fine technique and, for someone who has not played a lot of white ball cricket or who is not seen as a white ball cricketer, he scores his runs quite quickly. But we’re talking about a player who has an appetite for tough situations – it is all about temperament in tough times.”
Prince remembered a couple of innings from last season where Hamza scored an unbeaten 100 in a chase against the Dolphins and helped the team recover from 10/2 to “lay the platform for us to get over the line” in another game.
This display of character, his batting position and the wristy way he plays given his past sporting venture as a centre forward in hockey (he also played SA Schools in that code) have drawn the inevitable comparisons to Hashim Amla and, to a lesser extent, the man said to be Hamza’s role model, Jacques Kallis.
“It’s a little unfair to compare him to either,” explained Prince. “He is quite mature for his age, but he should be compared to Hamza. I have had the privilege of playing with both those guys and working with him.
“They are all different characters and you wouldn’t want to be someone else. We must enjoy the new brigade for who they are. They must develop at their own pace – Hash and Kallis had outstanding careers, but they struggled at first, so we must back Hamza.”
And, as for that technique Prince has so little time for, he is quite effusive about Hamza’s: “He is an accomplished shot maker who is equally good off the back and front foot, and plays spin very well because he played hockey – you have to get into a similar position and manoeuvre your hands similarly, so he has supple wrists.
“There’s this shot he plays for us when the spinner misses his lengths. He hits him for six off the back foot because he is very quick on his feet. He also drives well down the ground, he is very good on the on-drive.”
And what of Hamza the man?
“Like I said, he is really mature for his age. He comes from a humble family who believe in hard work and that there are no freebies in life. You see that in his character.
“If you’re going to compare him to Hashim, his humility is probably the one area you can do so.”
