SA, England bury hatchet?
2008-07-18 11:24
Rob Houwing
Cape Town - So much "peace" has broken out between England and South Africa of late that you almost wonder whether someone from either camp hasn't got a hand on a button at Headingley, preparing to unleash a surprise new salvo.
The second Test was due to start at the Leeds venue on Friday, with the previous encounter at Lord's having done much, it seemed, to reduce the bad blood between the teams.
Pivotal to much of the prior needle, of course, had been the rise to genuine England stardom of "dissident" South African Kevin Pietersen and his dynamite-infused earliest encounters against the Proteas in one-day internationals (Lord's was his first Test against them).
But even the predictable animosity between Pietersen and several South African players, going back to his earliest appearances against them in 2004/05, appears to have calmed immeasurably.
Indeed, a couple of the Proteas players had the grace - as they indeed should have - to applaud his high-quality century in the drawn London encounter.
And then when South African captain Graeme Smith, probably "KP's" fiercest foe, had his own opportunity to raise his bat in celebration of that landmark at Lord's, Pietersen could be seen very clearing applauding from mid-off.
Smoked a peace pipe
Adding to the unusual levels of bonhomie, Jacques Kallis was quoted in the August edition of England's The Wisden Cricketer magazine as saying Pietersen had "made the right move" by abandoning his career "in the Natal B side".
Just as importantly, though, rival captains Smith and Michael Vaughan also appear to have smoked a peace pipe, whether consciously or not.
Both had taken very public pot-shots at each other in previous years, but a ceasefire seems to have been reached in 2008.
Admittedly the interview was a little tongue-in-cheek, but when celebrity journalist and former tabloid newspaper editor Piers Morgan grilled Vaughan in GQ magazine, his answers were a good yardstick:
Morgan: You have described (Smith) as "the biggest tosser in world cricket", haven't you?
Vaughan: (Laughs) Yes. He's matured; he's all right now. And he has done a brilliant job with South Africa given all the political difficulties they have faced.
Morgan: But he did call you a "queer"?
Vaughan: He did, yes. But we have spoken since then; it?s all cool now.
What is going to happen at Headingley to undo these dizzy levels of cordiality?