Notables - Colin Bland (Springbok cricket)
Kenneth Colin Bland
Kenneth Colin Bland (born 5 April 1938 in
Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia) was a cricketer who played for South
Africa.
Bland originally came from Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, which was then not a
Test cricket-playing nation. He also played for the South African
provincial sides Eastern Province and Orange Free State. A tall and
elegant right-handed batsman, Bland broke into the South African Test
team in 1961, and was a regular until 1966-67. As South Africa in the
apartheid era played Test cricket only against England, Australia and
New Zealand, his career was restricted to just 21 Tests, in which he
scored 1,669 runs, including three centuries. His highest Test score
came in the Second Test against England at Johannesburg in 1964-65;
South Africa followed on 214 behind, and was 109 for 4 in the second
innings when Bland came in and hit 144 not out in just over 4 hours to
save the match.
Bland's chief fame, though, rested on his fielding. By common consent
the finest cover fieldsman of his time, and rated by some as the finest
ever, he was able to the turn the course of whole matches. His
spectacular run out of Ken Barrington in the Lord's Test of 1965,
followed by a similar dismissal of Jim Parks, may have prevented England
from establishing a match-winning first innings lead, the match
eventually being drawn. Brian Johnston recalled of the 1965 tour, "For
the first time I heard people saying that they must go to a match
especially to watch a fielder."
Bland was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1966; he is one of only two
players so honoured (the other is Stuart Surridge) to be depicted in the
accompanying portrait fielding, rather than batting, bowling or keeping.
When Wisden asked Peter van der Merwe in 1999 to name the five
outstanding cricketers of the twentieth century, he included Colin
Bland, saying, "He revolutionised the attitude to fielding, and set a
standard not yet equalled."
Bland retired from Test cricket after injury forced him out of the side
after the First Test in 1966-67. He continued to play first-class
cricket in South Africa until the 1973-74 season.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the 1960's a tall, lithely built Rhodesian revolutionised what had
always been accepted as the dullest aspect of the sport of cricket — the
art of fielding.
The man was K. C. (Colin) Bland, who, with singular dedication to long
hours of practice, set the cricket world alight with his spectacular
efforts in the field and placed a new emphasis on an aspect of the game
that had previously attracted little attention.
As a young man, Bland, believing that he was primarily a batsman, felt
he could still make a material contribution to a team effort by fielding
well even if he turned in a low batting score.
That was the beginning of an arduous fitness and training programme to
which Bland stuck throughout his playing days. Following the Canadian
Air Force 5BX fitness programme, Bland got himself into peak condition
and stayed there. Encouraged by his father, he embarked on a fielding
training course that involved long hours of picking up the ball on the
run and throwing down stumps set up in front of a hockey goal.
The hard work paid off. With his reflexes honed razor-sharp, Bland was
able to perform near miracles in the field. He developed his skill to
such a degree that the run-out became a real weapon in the Springbok
teams for which he played. His pick-up and return-throw in one fluid
movement from any angle became legendary and by 1964 he was generally
acknowledged as the finest fielder in the world.
In 1965 Bland toured England with Pieter van der Merwe's Springboks and
in the first Test at Lord's he stunned the crowds with a brilliant pick-
up and throw from square leg to dismiss Ken Barrington. Jim Parks
suffered a similar fate in the same Test when Bland threw down his
stumps. The rangy Rhodesian became a celebrity and a great draw card.
For the first time, people were flocking to cricket matches to watch a
man field.
Bland's performances on that tour prompted Alan Ross of the London
Observer to write: "He is a handsome attacking batsman, orthodox in
defence and a powerful driver with a taste for hitting unexpected
straight sixes without apparent effort "But it is as a fielder that he
is unique, bridging the wide gap between accomplishment and art"
Of that first Test at Lord's, Crawford White of the Daily Express wrote:
"There was majestic eagle-like ferocity and grace in the way Bland
swooped to throw out Barrington."
The victim, Barrington, had this to say: "I knew Colin was great but
he's greater than I thought A batsman always knows where Bland is. He
has to know, to live!"
Bland was not only an accomplished batsman and a brilliant fielder; he
also had a sensible and analytical approach to the game. He was always
thinking about how he could improve his own performance and of ways to
get the other side out. An ideal example of Bland's scheming was a match
against Mike Smith's touring MCC side at the Police Ground in Salisbury.
Mike Brearley of Middlesex was batting, Bland was in his happy hunting
ground at cover and his Old Georgians club-mate, Vernon Dickenson, was
at mid-off. Brearley consistently pushed the ball towards mid-off; Bland
would come cantering in, stoop as though to collect the ball and let it
go through to Dickenson while the batsmen took an easy single.
This occurred several times but in one over Dickenson suddenly stood
about fifteen metres deeper. Brearley played to mid-off, saw Dickenson
was deeper and went off for a single. But this time Bland came in like
an express train and threw down Brearley's stumps in one movement with
the unfortunate batsman well out of his ground. The great Ted Dexter was
one of Bland's victims in similar fashion when the Cavaliers played at
Salisbury, and there have been countless others in all classes of
cricket.
Kenneth Colin Bland was born at Bulawayo on-5 April 1938, a third
generation Rhodesian of Scottish descent. His talent at cricket was
quick to manifest itself when he scored his first century at the age of
ten for Baines Junior School. He played for Rhodesian and South African
Schools in 1956 and 1957 and made his first-class debut as a nervous
eighteen-year-old Milton
schoolboy honoured by selection for Rhodesia against Peter May's 1956-57
MCC touring side.
His debut was exemplary and he top-scored in both innings with 19 and 38
—and that was against an attack which included the great fast bowler
Frank Tyson.
From that auspicious beginning it became clear that Bland had a great
future in cricket. In 1960 he captained South African Universities to a
victory in two days over Western Province and in the process hit 124 out
of the Universities' total of 347-5.
After a successful tour of England with the young invitation South
African Fezelea's team in 1961, Bland was selected to play for South
Africa against the touring New Zealand team later that year. It was not
a spectacular Test debut for Bland, though his performances could hardly
be classed as failures. He scored a total of 205 runs with a top score
of 42 but the talent was obviously there and he gained selection for the
South African team to tour Australia in 1963 and 1964.
He was not selected for the first Test of the tour as he was a little
slow in finding form, but after the first Test there was no stopping
him. In six innings he scored 367 runs with an average of over 60
including a magnificent 126 in the fifth and final Test. His average of
61,16 was second only to Eddie Barlow (75) and was better than batting
genius Graeme Pollock, who finished his first tour with an average of
57.
Bland played in all three Tests against New Zealand and totalled 207
runs at the excellent average of 69. As a batsman he was blossoming and
the following1964-65 season was to be his best when he played eight
Tests against England — five in South Africa and three in England, by
which time his fielding prowess was legendary.
In the second Test against Mike Smith's England side at the Wanderers in
Johannesburg, Bland passed the milestone of 1 000 runs in Test cricket.
He hit a magnificent undefeated 144 to take his Test total to 1 046,
scored from 14 Test matches.
Bland passed another milestone in the fifth Test at Port Elizabeth when
his innings of 48 took him beyond Jackie McGlew's long-standing record
for first class runs scored in a South African season. It did not stop
there.
By March 1965, Bland had become the first man to score 1 000 first-class
runs in a South African season. He did it by hitting 62 for Rhodesia in
a match against English County champions Worcestershire at Salisbury.
The innings took his aggregate to 1048 runs, easily beating McGlew's
previous record of 953.
It was a highly satisfying season for the Rhodesian. He had also topped
the South African Test averages with 572 runs at 71,5 including a
century and four half-centuries.
After the 1965 tour of England, where he so impressed as a fielder,
Bland was honoured by an invitation to play for the World XI in two
matches against England in September. By then he had scored 1 351 runs
in 17 Tests. But it was still his fielding prowess that made Bland a
cricket celebrity, someone for schoolboys to emulate.
He was extremely popular in England and drew large crowds to exhibitions
of his fielding, thereby publicising a facet of cricket normally
accepted as being a very ordinary and unexciting part of the game.
Ian Woolridge of the London Daily Moil commented on Bland's run-out of
Barrington: "It was an electrifying moment of fielding. It is the story,
not only of the throw that turned a Test but of a man who can do for
fielding what Bradman did for batting." This was not isolated praise.
Bland was honoured by being named as one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of
the Year for 1965, and in November of that year he was awarded the John
Hopley Memorial Trophy as Rhodesia's Sportsman of the Year.
The 1966 South African season was a turning-point for Bland. He was
selected for the Springbok team to play the five Test series at home
against Bobby Simpson's Australians but he injured his right knee on the
final day of the first Test at the Wanderers at Johannesburg.
The accident happened when Bland, in typical fashion, was putting in
maximum effort to stop a ball reaching the boundary. He collided with
the picket fence and that injury effectively ended his Test career.
In September 1966 he had been selected for the World XI and hit 132 in
their first match against Sussex. But his knee had shown signs of
weakening and he played little part in the World XI's remaining matches.
Eventually he had a cartilage removed in an operation at Salisbury in
January 1967. He made a good recovery and was back playing in league
cricket less than a month later.
He continued to play for Rhodesia in Currie Cup and in August 1967 was
appointed national cricket coach. He also captained Rhodesia in thirteen
matches, winning four, losing four and drawing five, and hit his highest
first-class score of 197 against Border that season.
In 1968 he received the almost customary invitation to play for the
World XI in England and he duly set off in August only to be prevented
from entering Britain because of his Rhodesian passport. It was a great
disappointment for Bland and for British cricket fans who treasured
memories of the Bland style of fielding which had made such an impact
three years before.
Thereafter, his career wound down rapidly. At the end of 1969 he left
Rhodesia to live in Port Elizabeth and played Currie Cup for Eastern
Province, but a year later he retired from the first-class game.
In 1971 Bland accepted the post of cricket and hockey coach at Free
State University and Grey College in Bloemfontein. A year later, while
running a sports goods shop in the city, he was honoured with life
membership of the MCC. By 1973 Bland was persuaded to return to cricket
as captain of Free State in the Currie Cup B section before finally
giving in at the end of the season.
An extraordinary sportsman who, in his earlier career had played hockey
for both Rhodesia and Eastern Province whilst at university, Bland then
turned to squash coaching.
Cricket owes a great debt to Colin Bland. He gave entertainment and joy
to thousands and left a standard to which all those who profess to be
competent in the field should wish to aspire.
