CS Chiwanza
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Gerald Coetzee was an extra in his first match. In South Africa, youngsters are introduced to cricket through the KFC Mini-Cricket program. They come, are drawn into teams, and have fun. Scores don’t mean much in these contests. A 7-year-old Coetzee, attending his first game, joined the other kids in a playful competition to see who would hit the stumps first from a 5-metre distance. In a single motion, Coetzee picked up the ball and knocked down the poles.
Sometimes you need a little serendipity to progress. A junior coach had just arrived when Coetzee made his direct hit. The Under-9 F team was one player short, and he needed someone to make up the numbers in the field. When the Mini-Cricket coach suggested his counterpart take on young Coetzee, he agreed. The youngster had a good arm and could be useful, he reasoned.
Coetzee did more than retrieve balls, he also bowled. His homespun action was unrefined and he was chucking. He made up for that by giving 100%. His attitude earned him a spot in the Under-10 A team in 12 months.
One month after his 23rd birthday, Coetzee was terrorising batters with his arm at the ODI World Cup. He bowled like a young man desperate to show that he wasn’t there by chance. Though he was co-opted into the South African team after Anrich Nortje pulled out because of injury, Coetzee wasn’t going to behave like an extra. He seemed unbothered by the oppressive Indian summer heat, cried when he bagged an important wicket and his feet bled afterwards. In India, the heat softened his skin and the socks cut into his flesh, so he couldn’t wear the same pair in two matches. After each game, Coetzee disposed of bloody, torn socks. He literally shed blood, sweat and tears on his way to 20 wickets, the most for a South African bowler at the 50-over World Cup. Coetzee arrived at the tournament with six ODIs and 11 wickets to his name and made his legend.
His life was following the script from 2018. Before he boarded the plane to New Zealand for the Under-19 World Cup, Coetzee was Free State Province’s best-kept secret. Four games and eight wickets later, he was among the players of the future the cricket universe was talking about. Ian Bishop earmarked him for Proteas colours and ESPNcricinfo had him in their team of the tournament even though South Africa failed to qualify for the semi-finals.
Alan Kruger, the Free State Knights’ coach at the time, almost offered Coetzee a contract the moment he stepped off the plane. There was such a loud buzz around his name that richer and bigger franchises were ready to offer him spots. “I wanted to build my team around Gerald (Coetzee), Raynard van Tonder, Wandile Makwetu and Marco Jansen,” he says.
Kruger describes Coetzee with one word: “wholehearted”. Before signing his first professional contract, the teenager attended every Knights training session after school, always ready to service the batters. He didn’t send down half-volleys but bowled to a plan, as if he was in a match. His short balls were aggressive while the other deliveries asked questions. In team meetings, he brought a notebook and pen and always had his hand up in the Q and A afterwards.
“You can’t coach speed and Coetzee was clocking 140kmph while he was in high school. That’s why he was earmarked as a future professional. But, that’s not why I gave him his debut in 2019. I did so because of his attitude, he did what he was asked to for the good of the team,” says Kruger.
Nothing demonstrates Coetzee’s team-first mantra more than his choice of memorable match from his youth. He casts his memory back to 2018 when St Andrews, his alma mater, became the first team from the Free State to win a Cricket South Africa schools tournament. In the final against Hilton College, Coetzee did not perform with bat and ball, and the match was won for them by two junior players. “I have had a few good outings but I’ll say that is the most memorable game I played in,” he shared with me in an interview.
At the 2023 ODI World Cup, Coetzee was asked to be the middle-overs enforcer. He bowled short, was aggressive and bounced a few batters out. It was a performance reminiscent of his Mzansi Super League debut in 2019. Back then, he conceded 11 runs in two fiery Powerplay overs that saw the back of Quinton de Kock and Janneman Malan in a space of five balls.
Then and now, performing that role led many to ask whether he is a one-trick pony, all speed and no variations. It is a suggestion that draws a chuckle from Allan Donald. When he met Coetzee in 2020, the youngster was already developing his armoury. The South African great only helped him hone his skills. As he did with Kruger, Coetzee diligently took notes and was at every net practice as discussed, paying close attention to the finer details like grip pressure on the seam, cross-seam or wobble seam.
“He’s got a knuckleball that he’s been working very hard on and a back-of-the-hand slower-ball that he’s now got in his armoury, then an off-cutting one that takes pace off in a big way that bites into the pitch. He bowls it often with his slower-ball bumper,” says Donald.
According to Donald, Coetzee always appreciated the need for him to have at least three variations, with one that is very hard to pick – like Mustafizur Rahman’s off-cutter, which is almost impossible to read out of the hand. Often, all a batter sees is a wrist that flicks as the ball comes out slowly. “One full IPL for him will do him good, he’s going to learn more and more,” says Donald.
However, this is not Coetzee’s maiden trip to the IPL. His first trip to the tournament was in 2021 when he was picked as a replacement player by Rajasthan Royals. He had an opportunity to train with them but didn’t get any game time as the tournament was postponed midway because of COVID-19.
At the time, the Royals had Chris Morris and David Miller on their books and the two South Africans took it upon themselves to look after him. “I got to watch one game and met Kumar Sangakkara. The experience made me hungry to work harder and be noticed so that I go back there in the future,” says Coetzee.
Now it is his turn to look after another blue-eyed South African youngster, Kwena Maphaka, who joined Mumbai Indians as a replacement player. And if there is one thing Coetzee can teach the 17-year-old besides bowling fundamentals, it is how to run in as if each delivery will be his last and how not to behave like a replacement player or an extra.
