As much as it pains me to say it, South Africa is a rugby-mad nation.
Its victories are celebrated well into the night, while defeats are treated as national disasters.
The Springboks are regarded as heroes by millions and worshipped across the land.
Cricketers, unfortunately, do not hold the same sort of status among sports fans in the Republic.
The Proteas are loved, respected and honoured, but are not consistently bombarded with invitations to social functions, media requests, etc.
With all due respect to Albie Morkel, he could possibly get away with going to the movies at the Waterfront without being interrupted on too many occasions.
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It's not like Joost van der Westhuizen, who once said his favourite holiday destination was Disneyland, purely because nobody recognises him.
So when an individual within the Proteas ranks does get caught up in the spotlight like JP Duminy has over the past two months, it really is something to behold.
I can only think of one other Protea since unity who has enjoyed a similar sort of adoration like Duminy is currently enjoying. He is, of course, fellow Capetonian and Duminy's former Cape Cobras teammate Paul Adams.
"Gogga" spun a web around the English in 1995-96 and everybody wanted a piece of the Paul Adams pie.
It was a media rollercoaster that had never before been seen in South African cricket.
Fame and fortune followed Adams and everything he touched turned to gold. Lucrative sponsors clamoured to be part of the Gogga brand and he even had a biography published after his first season.
Adams took a long time to get used to all the media attention. Admittedly, he was only 18 years old and straight out of school, but Gogga placed a lot of pressure on himself to perform to everybody's lofty expectations every time he played for South Africa.
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