Zaahier Adams
IF at 9.15 tonight should Justin Lee Ontong slog-sweep the ball to the mid-wicket boundary, scamper through for a single, or throw down the stumps to clinch the RamSlam T20 Challenge title for the Cape Cobras it could not happen to a nicer individual.
In fact, there are few nicer cricketers plying their trade on the South African domestic circuit.
There’s always that nice smile that greets you, the nice warm handshake and the nice polite answer to each question, no matter how hard or intricate it may be.
However, being “nice” though is not a characteristic that you would normally associate with a successful captain, especially when the likes of Clive Rice and Kepler Wessels come to mind.
They were all considered “hard bastards” and Ontong’s pleasant demeanour certainly doesn’t invoke images of him giving any form of “hairdryer treatment” to either the opposition or any of his teammates.
And after his first spell at the helm of the Cobras was not a perfect fit back in 2009, and was later replaced by the more robust and imposing figure of Justin Kemp, it led many to believe that Ontong was – there it is again – simply too nice to lead a senior franchise team.
“I don’t think it was a case of being too ‘nice’,” Ontong told the Cape Times this week. “There were other factors that had a more telling effect. Like I had just moved back to Cape Town after four seasons in Johannesburg playing for the Lions/Strikers and I first needed to adapt to how the Cobras did things, and work out the culture of the team here.
“That was very important for me first to be comfortable in my new surroundings.
“Also I wasn’t very happy with my personal game at the time. I wasn’t scoring many runs, and that increased the pressure because I believe it is important for the captain to be contributing to the team’s cause.
“You can’t be a passenger. I am still not one to shout loudly or speak that much, but I believe my performances have done the talking for me, and I also try to set the standards for the team culture in different ways, like being the first to arrive at training, even if I live the furthest in Paarl, and the last to leave.
“That shows the younger guys what is expected of them and hopefully keeps the standard at a high level.”
Ontong’s second stint has certainly been a fruitful one for the man from the Paarl vineyards. He has been among the leading run-scorers in the country across all formats for the past couple of years, while under the 35-year-old’s leadership, the Cobras have become the dominant force of domestic cricket, rivalling other great local teams of previous generations such as Transvaal’s “Mean Machine” and Wessels’ Eastern Province outfit of the late 1980s through the early 1990s.
Besides capturing silverware on a regular basis, almost like the pirates who used to plunder the Caribbean seas, the Cobras have become the team of choice for the Proteas (Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn); while there has been a steady stream of young talent graduating through the Cobras ranks into the national teams.
Starlets such as Beuran Hendricks and Dane Piedt are the headline grabbers, but the development of promising players such as Dane Paterson, GF Linde, Ferisco Adams and Omphile Ramela is a tribute to the culture that Ontong and the Cobras coaching staff of Paul Adams and Saliegh Nackerdien have created down at Newlands.
“Our strategy is centred on keeping things very simple, clear definition of roles, concentrating greatly on our preparation work.
“There is a lot of experience around our team too, so young players have the chance to watch and learn how the more senior players go about their work.
“We concentrate a lot on the culture and environment here at the Cobras, so that players can go out and express themselves on the field.
“It is very rewarding when our youngsters represent the Proteas, because that means we are doing something right down here.
“Obviously it’s a little bit difficult for the captain (laughs) when we lose them to the national team so quickly because then it’s a new challenge as we are working with a different set of young players again, but keeps us older guys young,” Ontong chirped.
At 34 Ontong’s national ambitions are probably starting to dim now, although there is one last lifeline remaining after he was named last week in South Africa’s preliminary 30-man squad for next year’s World Cup.
A substantial individual performance tonight against the Knights, especially in view of South Africa’s middle-order woes in recent times, to get the Cobras over the line could just earn him that golden World Cup ticket.
If it does all go according to script, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.