Herschelle Gibbs turns 44 today – here’s how his career unfolded
Arguably one of the greatest batsmen of his time, Herschelle Gibbs often lit up the cricket world, be it through his skills, or his antics.
Born in Green Point, Cape Town, Herschelle Herman Gibbs became one of South Africa’s greatest cricketers and was also one of the most controversial South African players in his own right.
Gibbs made his test and international debut against India, back in November 1996, where he was outshone by fellow debutante, Lance Klusener.
His first test century would come in March of the same year, when he bagged a double century, smashing an unbeaten 211 runs against New Zealand in Christchurch.
1999 would turn sour for Gibbs at the ICC Cricket World Cup when he cost South Africa a Super Eight game against Australia.
Steve Waugh was on 56 when he hit a ball to Gibbs at mid-wicket. Gibbs took the catch, but proceeded to celebrate too quickly and the umpires judged he had not had the ball under control for long enough, deeming it a dropped catch. Waugh would go on to score 120 and win the game for the Aussies.
Controversy seemed to follow Gibbs – only a year later he was involved in the infamous Hansie Cronjé match-fixing scandal.
According to ESPN Cricinfo’s website, “He later admitted to accepting money from Cronjé to score fewer than 20 runs against India in the Nagpur one-dayer in 2000. He subsequently scored 74 runs and said he had ‘forgotten’ about the deal, but was suspended and fined by the South African authorities. For the next six years, he refused to travel to India, fearing questioning by the Delhi police.”
Gibbs would recover by becoming only the third player in history to score three consecutive centuries in ODIs, all three coming during September and October 2002.
In what was undoubtedly the most memorable match in the history of South African cricket, Gibbs played the greatest innings of his career.
In what is now known as the ‘438 Game’, the Proteas were playing Australia at The Wanderers, when the Aussies smashed 434 runs in their allotted 50 overs.
Faced with a mammoth task, the Protea batsmen knew they had to pull the biggest rabbit in the history of cricket out of the hat.
Gibbs did exactly that, scoring 175 off 111 balls, which remained his highest-ever ODI score.
The game was won by Mark Boucher with a boundary over mid-on with one ball to spare, bring the Proteas’ total to 438 for the loss of nine wickets.
A year later, Gibbs became the first player to hit six sixes in an over in an international match, when he smashed Netherlands’ Daan van Bunge all over the ground in St Kitts at the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.
He would play his final game for South Africa in a T20I against Pakistan in 2010.
Regardless of the controversies he carried with him, Gibbs would inspire a generation of cricketers with many aspiring to achieve what he could.
Standing as the third-highest run-scorer in ODIs for South Africa, he will forever remain one of the greatest batsmen to don the Proteas’ jersey.
As someone inspired by the magic that unfolded when he strode out to the middle, and on behalf of an entire generation of cricketers, we thank you, Herschelle, and wish you a very happy birthday.
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