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If you tell the Sri Lankans who are over the age of 35 to pick their favourite South African cricketer, most would opt for Brett Schultz, above Dale Steyn, A.B. de Villiers and Jonty Rhodes. The tear away left-arm quick from Port Elizabeth finished with 20 wickets in South Africa’s first tour to Sri Lanka in 1993.
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Schultz faded away after the series in Sri Lanka due to a series of ankle and knee injuries. After retirement, a freak accident at home nearly left him disabled. He underwent 16 surgeries to rectify his right-elbow and it had to be nearly amputated.
Schultz was doing well in his business. One day when getting ready to go on a business trip he climbed up a chair to take a suitcase from a cupboard. He ended up shattering his elbow. Surgery went well but a subsequent hospital bug began to hurt him and he had to undergo 15 more surgeries on the elbow to save it over a period of six years.
At present he doesn’t have an elbow joint. He is able to function, but not hundred percent. The rehab was hard and his sporting courage saw him fighting back. Who would have thought that this fierce competitor would have suffered such a fate when he stunned the Sri Lankan batsmen in 1993? Life is such.
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Arjuna Ranatunga was brought back as Sri Lanka captain after the 1992 World Cup. His second stint started gloriously. Sri Lanka came within 16 runs to record their maiden Test win over Australia. Series wins over New Zealand and England at home followed. When the South Africans arrived in August, Arjuna was pretty comfortable that his side had the edge over the tourists having already seen them in the World Cup the previous years.
The Sri Lankans knew that pace was South Africa’s strong point and their key figures were Alan Donald, Brian McMillan and Richard Snell. They had never heard or seen Schultz, who was on his first tour. His 20 wickets at 16 in the end proved to Sri Lanka’s undoing.
South Africa desperately held on for a draw in the first Test at Moratuwa. The seventh wicket partnership between Jonty Rhodes and Clive Eksteen proved to be impregnable as they battled for almost a session to save South Africa from certain defeat.
It was missed opportunities for the South Africans as they went onto take the lead winning the next Test by an innings and 208 runs. To date that remains Sri Lanka’s worst defeat at home and their second worst defeat in Tests. Their main destroyer was Schultz, who took nine wickets in the game. He was named Man of the Match.
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The rain affected final Test at P. Sara Oval was drawn. Schultz again took a five wicket haul in Sri Lanka’s only innings and the Proteas won a closely contest series. Schultz for his blistering quick thunderbolts was the unanimous choice for Man of the Series.
“For a little man like me, he was indeed terrorizing,” says Aravinda de Silva, the man who put the best of fast bowlers to the sword.
Schultz’ first love was rugby. He excelled in the sport at senior levels at school after winning a scholarship to play rugby. He played cricket but his massive physique was ideally suited for rugby. He stated taking cricket seriously after South Africa’s first captain in the post-apartheid era Kepler Wessels urged him to take fast bowling more seriously.
He weighed 95 kilos during the peak of his career and at six foot three he was quite intimidating. But off the field, Schultz was one of the nicest blokes.His 23rd birthday was celebrated during the Moratuwa Test.
Being young and new meant that Schultz wasn’t too clever with the tricks of trade. Kepler Wessles from first slip observed that Roshan Mahanama was shuffling across the stumps. So the captain sent a message right around the slip cordon, to covers, then to mid-off and finally to the bowler to attack the batsman’s leg-stump. The message was sent in Afrikaans so that the batsman had no clue what was being said. Schultz spoke no Afrikaans and shouted at the captain from top of his mark in English. “If you want me to bowl on leg-stump, get the fine-leg finer.’
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Mahanama couldn’t stop laughing. He turned around and asked the slip cordon, ‘why is he giving that away.’ Schultz had an unusual delivery stride. The angel he was creating made it tougher for the batsmen. With the new ball he swung it both ways and it was with the older ball that he was deadly creating reverse swing. The Sri Lankans simply weren’t up for it.
Donald-Schultz could have been a devastating new ball pair like Lillee-Thomson, Wasim – Waqar, Holding – Roberts and Walsh – Ambrose. But it was not to be. His delivery stride took a toll on Schultz. Could he have refined his action? But that would have dented his effectiveness. It was a double edged sword for him. Perhaps he could have been better managed. Had he played in the modern era, he would have been perhaps better managed. But with South Africa returning after an isolation of 21 years due to their government’s apartheid policies only wanted to go flat out and win. Eventually Schultz paid a huge price.
Thankfully he is in good spirits again. He spends lots of time with his daughter Skye. Occasionally he pops up to watch cricket, but he isn’t too much into it concentrating on his business interests.
