He may be small in posture, but everybody knows he has an enormous spirit. Dr Ali Bacher, South Africa’s most famous cricket administrator, who at the age of 80 still enjoys global standing, this week visited the North-West University (NWU) to share enough life lessons and anecdotes to fill a number of books.

This guest lecture was hosted by the Faculty of Health Sciences and arranged by the Centre for Health and Human Performance, and man, it was interesting!

Where to start?

This former national cricket captain emphasised that passion and dedication should come before financial compensation and warned that you should never lie, because you will always be caught out. He expressed his regret that he did not always uplift people enough in the working environment, and said that people should be encouraged, and leaders should set an example by not regarding themselves as higher than their employees. He joked about how his grandchildren say he dates from the eighteenth century because of his lack of technological ability. Nelson Mandela was mentioned. More than mentioned. They had a close bond. Meals at the Union Buildings – the very same grandchildren who tease him sat on Madiba’s lap. How he asked Cyril Ramaphosa for advice about arranging the 2003 Cricket World Cup here at home.

But that is not what you want to hear, is it? You want to hear about cricket.

Now, besides the Australian master batsman Don Bradman, Jacques Kallis would be the first name on his ideal cricket team list. Steve Waugh himself told him that South Africans do not realise how good Kallis was. The versatile West Indian star Sir Garfield Sobers was, according to Bacher, almost as good. He explained how in 1991 he was on the first South African aeroplane to visit India since 1948. It was South Africa’s first cricket tour since readmission and this was also where he met an 18-year-old Sachin Tendulkar. They are still friends. He admiringly tells how Tendulkar processed the pressure of 1,3 billion Indian supporters. If he sends Tendulkar a message now, he receives a reply within 30 minutes.

He has regrets about Bradman. As player he wrote him a letter, and The Don wrote back. Eight pages! And what did Bacher do? He threw the letter away. That, he says, he regrets very much. Fortunately, he met Bradman during the 1992 World Cup in Australia. For an hour and a half Bradman talked to him about South Africa. Apparently, the Aussie knew more about the Republic than the native of Roodepoort.

Bradman had a test average of 99,94. That is unheard of. It is absurd. Graeme Pollock is second with 60,97. Bacher says Bradman was a freak of nature. We will never see his equal again. Yet, he feels that statistics do not matter. No, the guys who know the game, the guys who truly know the game, know whether a player is good or not. You can see it, regardless of what a piece of paper says.

He would know. Few would know better than he would.  

Dr Ali Bacher,