Allan Donald admits he feels "unbelievably honoured" to have been voted the Greatest Ever Bears Overseas Player by Warwickshire's supporters.
The South African fast-bowling legend took the accolade after seeing off fierce competition from a short-list which also included Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kallicharran, Brian Lara and Jeetan Patel.
As passionate about the Bears now as he ever was, ‘A.D’ was thrilled by the news.
I’ve been monitoring the Greatest Bears series with great interest. I had a lot of text from people saying ‘you’ll win’ but to be honest, when I saw I had been included in the five on the short-list, alongside those amazing players, that was enough for me.
Allan Donald
“I couldn’t believe that the members and supporters voted me the Greatest Overseas Bear,” he said. “I just feel unbelievably honoured and humbled.
“I always keep right in touch with what’s happening at the Bears and, in lockdown over here in South Africa, I’ve been monitoring the Greatest Bears series with great interest. I had a lot of text from people saying ‘you’ll win’ but to be honest, when I saw I had been included in the five on the short-list, alongside those amazing players, that was enough for me.
“But then to actually win – wow!
“It brought so many wonderful memories flooding back of all the brilliant people that I met at Warwickshire. First and foremost, Geoff Humpage who really took me under his wing.
“Geoff would pick me up and take me to matches and we would talk cricket for hours and that really set in motion my education in the game. I owe so much to Geoff, a really clever guy and also a tough guy. I was so lucky he took me under his wing and it was great to catch up with him at Edgbaston last time I was there.
“Norman Gifford was great too, always there with wise counsel, and Gladstone Small was another massive influence. He was so quiet and calm on the field and spoke to me so much about bowling and came up with ideas. I never had a proper bowling coach but Gladstone was pretty much my unofficial bowling coach. He also became a very good friend and really helped me settle.”
Donald was voted the Greatest Ever Overseas Bear by fans who recall the sustained wholehearted brilliance with which he led the county’s bowling attack, peaking in 1995 when he took 88 championship wickets at 15.48 apiece (he would have passed 100 had he not missed three matches through injury) to power Dermot Reeve’s side to the title.
A.D reflects upon that year with enormous pride and affection – and is quick to highlight the influence of Reeve, whom Bears fans have overwhelmingly voted the Greatest Ever Bears Captain.
“Dermot was exceptional,” Donald said. “He was brilliant at working out how to get the best out of people, in the case of us fast-bowlers conserving our energy to get the best out of us when it was most needed.
“He was a great strategist. He was the first captain I played under who divided the season up into blocks. He would look at three or four championship games and say ‘right, we want to win two or three of those’, then he’d look at certain ones and say ‘that could be a draw, we’ll have to take that’, and then others against weaker sides that we would expect to take down.
“He was also a real expert at annoying people! I remember when we played Derbyshire, late in the season, Daryll Cullinan was their main man and I was giving him everything and he was dealing with it and playing really well. I’d only bowled three overs and was a bit surprised when Dermot told me to take a break and he brought himself on with his phantom wobblies.
“Within a couple of overs he got Daryll out! He just had a knack of irritating the opposition and unsettling them and making things happen.”
* In Part Two next week, A.D reflects on what really fired him up in ’95 and recalls “the longest game of my life” from that glorious season.
