Kirsten tossing with Lawrence Rowe, Kirsten the classy batsman and Kirsten the pensive captain during the rebel ‘Tests’
by Arunabha Sengupta and Sumit Gangopadhyay
His first opportunity to play for Western Province arrived some time after South Africa had been isolated from the international arena. For a long time in his long career, most of his matches were not even deemed first-class. It was only after 1994-95, that they finally got the recognition.
From the 1973-74 season, Peter Kirsten played at the highest level he could manage. Variously for Western Province, Derbyshire and Border. Besides, he played in the minor pool and under-25 pool matches in Warwickshire.
If it had been a normal society and a normal country, South Africa would have been a cricketing superpower in the mid-1970s and alongside Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock, the youngsters completing the batting numbers of the team could have been Peter Kirsten, Kepler Wessels and Alan Lamb. However, that was not to be. Wessels played for Australia, Lamb for England. Kirsten had to wait for his turn until the readmission into international fold.
A gifted flyhalf who represented the Quagga-Barbarians against the British Lions at Ellis Park in 1974, Kirsten’s rugby career was derailed by a knee injury. He soon switched to cricket and established himself, with 1074 runs at 76.71 in the 1976-77 season. His final season was 20 years later, and he was still scoring hundreds, amassing 666 runs at 41.62. In between he played four seasons for Derbyshire, scoring 7722 runs for them at 49.50 with 20 hundreds.
The successor in waiting as the premier South African batsman as Graeme Pollock’s days as a cricketer drew to a close, Kirsten was a batsman who could take an attack apart with sparkling strokeplay. However, his full range of strokes were more like a rapier slicing through the bowling rather than a bludgeon smashing it to bits. According to Vintcent van der Bijl, “If he had been a golfer, he would have been known as a ‘touch player’.”
Kirsten naturally became one of the mainstays of the South African side of the 1980s who faced off against the visiting rebel teams. He also captained South Africa twice against Sri Lanka and four times against Lawrence Rowe’s West Indians when the sides visited for the rebel tours.
In the 19 unofficial ‘Tests’ played in the rebel circuit, Kirsten totalled 1353 runs at 43.64 with three hundreds—one against the Englishmen of 1982, and two in the same ‘Test’ against the Australians at Cape Town in 1986-87. The other scintillating showing was 67 and 61 in the low scoring thriller against West Indies in early 1984, which the visitors won by one wicket. Kirsten’s twin fifties were the only half-centuries in the match apart from Collis King’s 54.
His courage was tested by the likes of Sylvester Clarke and Ezra Moseley and he was not found wanting. However, being thrust into captaincy because of an unfortunate hand injury to Mike Procter did place him in the uncomfortable position of leading a side filled to the brim with men like Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock, men he had grown up worshipping. He was visibly overwhelmed, but managed to deliver four wins in the six ‘Tests’, losing just one.
As captain, Kirsten was also inexperienced enough to voice complaints against administrators. When an official had come into the dressing room at Wanderers and voiced that the West Indian victory was good for the game, Kirsten was offended. In the post-match conference he said that the Springboks were not getting the support they deserved. The remarks were justifiably judged ‘selfish’ and ‘untimely’, especially given the enormous sacrifices made by the West Indians to play South Africa during those controversial days.
By the time South Africa were readmitted into the official fold, he was already 36. However, he hurried to make up for lost time, playing some scintillating innings in the 1992 World Cup. Kirsten scored 410 runs at 68.33 with four fifties, however the lasting image is of his shaking his head in helpless disbelief as Brian McMillan and Dave Richardson walked out to play the final delivery in the semi-final, the target revised from 22 off 13 balls to 21 off one.
Even at that age, his fielding was electric. Johnty Rhodes later admitted that it was the fielder Peter Kirsten whom he idolised in his early days.
In their inaugural Test after readmission, against West Indies at Barbados,.Kirsten and Wessels took South Africa to 123 for 2, while they chased 201 to win in the fourth innings. Wessels was third out at 123, Kirsten sixth for 142. Ambrose and Walsh blasted them out for 148.
Kirsten’s 12 official Test matches were not really extraordinary, especially if one considers the sort of cricketer he was in his prime; but amongst his 628 runs at 31.30, there was a match-saving 104 at Leeds.
He also scored 1293 runs in 40 ODIs, averaging 38. Apart from the World Cup brilliance, he is also remembered for being run out by Kapil Dev while backing up too far before the ball was bowled.
In all first-class matches, Kirsten scored 22,635 runs at 44.46 with 57 hundreds. With his occasional off-breaks he captured 117 wickets
Father Noel Kirsten played first-class cricket for Border. Brother Andrew also played, for Western Province B. Half-brother Paul Kirsten played 55 times, for various first-class sides. However the most famed of his family was of course South African opening batsman and immensely successful international coach Gary Kirsten.
Peter Kirsten was born on 14 May 1955.