Richard Levi

School is busy at the moment.  The Cricket Superskills afternoon, preparations for the House Plays, Music at the Manor Concert and the demands of end-of-term projects and tests are keeping pupils and teachers more active than ever.

'Levi-Tation' - Frans Esterhuyse in Beeld, 21 February 2012

Then last Sunday the news hit us of the extraordinary world record breaking feats of Richard Levi, captain of our lst X1 in 2005.  Four TV channels descended on the school during the week, radio stations were requesting interviews, sports reporters wanted inside information of the formative years of this new superstar. The Beeld cartoon had us all chuckling on Tuesday morning about the new star being born.  I said to one reporter that I hope that one day when a Wynberg Old Boy discovers a cure for cancer, that he will receive as much acclaim as this 24 year old prodigy did for hitting a cricket ball so spectacularly.

‘Wynberg Boys’ High is to cricket what Grey College is to rugby’ gushed one internet site.  Fortunately our coaches have their feet too firmly rooted in the ground to fall for that one.  The moment sportsmen think that they are the best, then there is only one route to go….. down.   Bruce Probyn, my predecessor, used to tell the boys that they should look on themselves as the second best school - so that they never cease to aim to be the best.

Virtually every reporter asked whether we were aware of Richard’s talent at school.  Well, Kronendal  Primary School certainly did because their coach, Chris Ridley of the Blue Leopards Cricket Academy, recommended that he come and play for our u14 team when he was still in Grade 7.  The schools whom we met in combat on the cricket field certainly were aware -  as there are ten Levi Century Trees around the Jacques Kallis Oval which bear testimony to that.   SA Cricket certainly were aware as they awarded him SA u19 Cricketer of the Year in 2005.  He was in illustrious company in that he followed on from the 2004 winner – AB de Villiers.

KCR, Jacques Kallis & Richard Levi
Mutual and Federal Cricket Awards Ceremony 2005

I accompanied Richard’s dad, Jonathan, up to Johannesburg for the Mutual and Federal  Cricket Awards Ceremony in 2005 to support Richard at this prestigious event.  There was a double celebration in that we watched with pride as Jacques Kallis went on stage to receive the ‘Supersport Fans’  Cricketer of the Year Award.  Master of Ceremonies, Vince van der Bijl said of Jacques: ‘He is the rock on which South African Cricket leans. The glue which binds the team.  He is the fire which ignites their passion’.

Jacques is certainly not ready to pass on his mantle yet – but Richard is waiting in the wings to etch his name,  in time,  into the history books of South African cricket.

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Social psychologists talk about members of groups (Schools?  Sports teams?)  ‘catching’ behaviour from one another.  Groups of people change their behaviour according to the norms of the environment  in which they operate.  In 1855, the future Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, John X Merriman, then a pupil at Bishops,  wrote to a friend : ‘We challenged McNortons School (WBHS)… but our ground was too bad…. and the match was not played.  They would have beaten us hollow… they were very good players.’  (Reported in a ‘Century of Bishops’ by Colin McIntyre pg 15).

This legacy of Wynberg cricket, continued under Headmaster Edward Littlewood when names of Wynberg Old Boys started appearing in South African Cricket team sheets,  was strengthened under Bill Bowden and subsequent Headmasters.  Now a century later,  Jacques Kallis and  Richard Levi persist in intensifying  this culture.

Cricket is an integral part of the Wynberg Brand which values Commitment (‘Aiming High’), Pride and a dogged determination Never to Give Up.  Our u15 team defended a small total on Saturday against Affies (the Pretoria school which produced AB de Villiers, Faf de Plessis and Jacques Rudolph)  and won by one run. Have they, too,  now ‘caught’ this cricket culture?

As Archie Henderson said in The Times on Monday morning:  ‘There is a culture at Wynberg of playing good and positive cricket.’  May cricket reporters continue to say this for the next century of cricket at this school.

KCR