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✪ Dale Steyn: Goodbye to a pacer who never stained his bowling action for speed or wickets
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Senior cricket writer & analyst
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South African pacer Dale Steyn, nicknamed Steyn Gun, has walked away from all forms of cricket. Batsmen feared his bowling as though they were facing a stengun! Since he was so aggressive on the field, I imagined he would be the same off the field too. But he surprised me with his mannerisms off the field, and very often his quotes during interviews and press conferences were poetic. In his Twitter note while announcing his retirement, he made it a point to thank journalists too.
Dale Steyn. Picture from his Twitter page
Not many cricket fans would have liked to watch Dale Steyn’s facial expression after bagging a wicket. In fact, the manner in which he celebrated after dismissing a batsman could have irked many. And if the fan happened to be a supporter of the team facing Steyn’s bowling, he could get absolutely irritated. His appeals to the umpire for a wicket would seem frightening at times. He seemed to scare people with his eyes, and whenever he appealed, one could see the veins around his neck pounding hard. On most occasions, umpires rarely looked at Steyn while turning down his appeal. Steyn’s appeal spreading his arms may well have intimidated the non-striker too.
I had the fortune to interact with Steyn on numerous instances. Given his aggressive image on the field, my first interaction with him was with a lot of apprehensions. I expected his responses to be aggressive too. Instead, his calm mannerism and patience left me surprised. Shane Watson’s tweet following Steyn’s retirement sums it up aptly: “He (Steyn) is a fierce competitor on the field, but such a sweet and super kind person off it.”
It was much later that I read about his off-field behaviour when he spoke about himself quite analytically using interesting similies. He said: “When I am off the field, I am the calm, very quiet kind of easy-going ocean. But, when I am on a hot streak with the cricket ball, I can be the most disastrous waters you have ever been in.”
Dale Steyn’s message on Twitter announcing his retirement
Steyn’s bowling was always a treat to watch. His action was smooth and clean. Some of those instances when he had the stumps uprooted or sent down cartwheeling will live on forever. Frequent injuries did stop him on and off, but he came back forcefully every time, refusing to get shattered by those breaks. The last time he played in the UAE was for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Mumbai Indians during the Indian Premier League on October 28, 2020, at the Abu Dhabi Zayed Cricket Stadium. He failed to get any wicket in that match and gave away 43 runs from his four overs. By then, Steyn was no longer the pacer who could generate fear and it was more or less clear that the day was not far off when he would call it a day.
Dale Steyn in action during IPL. Picture: BCCI
Who can forget that deadly spell of six wickets for just eight runs to bowl out Pakistan for 49 runs in 2013 at Johannesburg? One of Steyn’s finest remarks was: “Once I step over that white line (boundary) I become the bowler.”
Steyn’s yorkers were almost always deadly. Once when he was asked about yorkers, he said that someone who has mastered bowling yorkers can pick wickets in any country or on any type of pitch: “A 150 or 145km yorker is absolutely no different… whether you bowl it in Nagpur, Chennai, Johannesburg or Perth. It is the skill behind the delivery…. the planning behind the delivery… that counts at the end of the day.” He had once mentioned that great fast bowlers hardly worry whether the wicket was green or not because they will find a way to get wickets.
Not many cricket fans may know that Steyn’s family hails from Zimbabwe though he was born in the small town of Phalaborwa in South Africa. According to him, when he started off his main aim was to get the opposition to acknowledge him. Later when he started bowling to some of the greats, he believed that the only way to respect their greatness was to raise his own game. He always encouraged youngsters to believe in themselves, never give up, and stop questioning their abilities. It is this never give up attitude that had made him play till the age of 38. In fact, he had once confessed that he was addicted to taking wickets.
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