No Regrets As Gibbs Believes Proteas Can End Cup Hoodoo

Daniel Gallan speaks to South African great Herschelle Gibbs about his country’s hopes of ending their disappointment in cricket’s one-day showpiece event

Herschelle Gibbs was a batsman of juxtapositions. Infuriatingly inconsistent, he oscillated between the sublime and the bizarre with enough frequency to charge your phone.

“I was an innovator and a maverick,” he told The Cricket Paper. “Sometimes it didn’t come off but sometimes it did.”

Both versions of Gibbs were on display on June 13, 1999, at Headingley in the Super Six stage of the World Cup. Opening the batting against Australia, the mercurial swashbuckler struck more than a third of his team’s total in his knock of 101 – the only century registered by a South African in the tournament.

Then, in the 31st over of Australia’s chase, Steve Waugh looped the simplest of chances to Gibbs at short mid-wicket who inexplicably grassed it after prematurely celebrating. Waugh was on 56 at the time and would eventually finish unbeaten on 120 having dragged his side over the line.

“I knew I made a mistake immediately but didn’t think I’d dropped the World Cup,” Gibbs said, dispelling the myth that Waugh had told him that he’d done just that. “He still needed to play a blinder. I don’t feel I lost that game on my own. People often forget that I scored a ton to set the game up. But that’s how it is with sport.”