The Nashua Cape Cobras often shortened to Cape Cobras or Cobras is the name used since the 2005-06 season by the combined Western Province and Boland first class cricket teams in South African domestic cricket. The joint Western Province and Boland team was named Western Province Boland for the 2004-05 season. The Cobras home venues are Newlands, Cape Town and Boland Bank Park, Paarl.

 

The Cobras play in the SuperSport Series, MTN Domestic Championship and Standard Bank Twenty20 competitions.

 

Team Composition:

 

The Cobras have consistently excelled in this regard, regularly producing the bulk of the Proteas’ Castle Test squad top order including both the captain, Graeme Smith, and the vice-captain, Ashwell Prince.

 

Current nationally contracted players are Smith, Gibbs, JP Duminy and Monde Zondeki.

The acquisition of Justin Kemp along with Robin Peterson and Mario Olivier will mean that there is no shortage of talent in the snake pit. Kemp, Justin Ontong, Andrew Puttick and Henry Davids provide the batting experience as well as the classy youngsters, Stiann van Zyl and Richard Levi.

Vernon Philander and Rory Kleinveldt provide the all-round quality and a bowling attack spearheaded by Charl Langeveldt and balanced by the spin of Claude Henderson and Peterson.

 

The current captain is Proteas Standard Bank ODI squad member Justin Ontong and the coach Shukri Conrad.

 

Cape Cobras has won 22 matches out of 40 matched they had played so far.

 

Major achievements:

 

The Cape Cobras has won the MTN championship in 2006-07 and the Pro20 series in 2008-09.

 

Cape Cobras Squad:

 

Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs, JP Duminy, Justin Ontong, Charl Langeveldt, Claude Henderson, Monde Zondeki, Vernon Philander, Henry Davids, Ryan Canning, Rory Kleinveldt, Richard Levi, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Derek Brand, Francois Plaatjies

 

 

Players’ Profile:

 

Graeme Smith:

 

A bittersweet first World Cup as captained followed, where Smith made 443 runs but South Africa was brutally hammered by eventual winners Australia. Yet South Africa gathered steam in Test cricket, and under Smith ended a 43-year hiatus with their first series win in England since the end of apartheid. Smith’s biggest triumph, though, came a few months later.

 

Major teams: South Africa, Africa XI, Cape Cobras, ICC World XI, Rajasthan Royals, Somerset, Western Province

 

 

Derek Brand:

 

Major teams: Cape Cobras, Easterns

 

 

Ryan Canning:

 

Major teams: Cape Cobras, Western Province

 

Henry Davids:

 

A flashy strokeplayer, more accustomed to one-day cricket than its longer format, Davids made his debut for Boland against the touring New Zealanders in 2000. With one hundred and a fifty, and 336 runs in six matches, it was an encouraging start to his career. A solid second season was followed by a run drought and his next hundred wasn’t made until March 2006.

 

Major teams: Boland, Cape Cobras, Western Province Boland

 

 

Jean-Paul Duminy:

 

Duminy’s batting is elegant and graceful, with a silky cover-drive and a strong square cut. He has few problems when the ball is short, either, and like a lot of left-handers like to whip deliveries through midwicket. There is calmness about his play that belies his age, an approach that flows into his personality. After scoring his 166 at the MCG he said: “I guess I have a lot to live up now.”
He is a brilliant fielder anywhere with a safe pair of hands and a decent arm. In ODIs he has helped fill the gap left by Jonty Rhodes and when he plays alongside AB de Villiers and Herschelle Gibbs, South Africa’s fielding circle is almost unbreakable.

 

Major teams: South Africa, Cape Cobras, Devon, Mumbai Indians, South Africa Under-19s, Western Province, Western Province Boland

 

 

Sybrand Engelbrecht:

 

Sybrand Engelbrecht is a right-hand allrounder who bats in the middle-order and bowls offspin. He made his first-class debut for Northerns in October 2007 and scored 45 and took four wickets against North West in the Provincial Challenge. He made an impact during the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia in 2008 with his stunning fielding at point and took catches that drew comparison with Jonty Rhodes.

 

Major teams: Cape Cobras, Northerns

 

 

Herschelle Gibbs:

 

At the crease, however, Gibbs can be invincible. There is no shot beyond his compass, while Test-match opening has not tempered his desire for explosive entertainment. The speed of his hands is hypnotic, frequently allowing him to hook off the front foot and keep out surprise lifters. His trademark is the lofted extra-cover drive, hit inside-out with the certainty of a square cut.

 

Major teams: South Africa, Cape Cobras, Deccan Chargers, Glamorgan, Western Province

 

 

Claude Henderson:

 

Claude Henderson has had to wait a long time for recognition as the South African spinning duties passed from Pat Symcox to Paul Adams and on to Nicky Boje. A prison warder before he turned to cricket full time, Henderson has spent many South African winters honing his craft in the English leagues. Among South Africa’s provincial cricketers, Henderson was highly-regarded, not least for his patience but he left his homeland behind after it was clear he wouldn’t have a major international future. He signed for Leicestershire as a Kolpak signing where he as been a consistent performer.

 

Major teams: South Africa, Boland, Leicestershire, Lions, Western Province, Worcestershire Cricket Board

 

 

Rory Kleinveldt:

 

Rory Kleinveldt is another member of South Africa’s assembly line of big-hitting, fast-bowling allrounders. He was a member of South Africa’s Under-19 team which made the final of the 2002 World Cup, and after a stint with the South African Academy side, was fast-tracked into first-class cricket by Western Province in 2002-03. An unremarkable debut resulted in a spell with the province’s B side but consistent performances, including a 6 for 22 against Border which he counts as his best spell, soon made him a regular in the first XI.

 

Major teams: Cape Cobras, Hampshire, South Africa Under-19s, Western Province, Western Province Boland

 

 

Charl Langeveldt:

 

Langeveldt first came to prominence with his ability to swing the ball at genuine pace, and further work on his action in recent seasons allowed him to generate even more movement, bringing him to the attention of the national selectors. He made his one-day international debut against Kenya in Kimberley in 2001-02, taking two top-order wickets. He followed that with career-best figures of 4 for 21 when the two sides met for a second time at Newlands shortly afterwards.

 

Langeveldt was included in South Africa’s 15-man squad for their ill-starred World Cup campaign in 2003, playing only in the pool match against Kenya. He returned to favour when South Africa experienced a dramatic slump in the middle of 2004, taking 3 for 31 in Sri Lanka and then, in perhaps his most impressive spell so far, 3 for 17 against Bangladesh in the ICC Champions Trophy.

 

Major teams: South Africa, Boland, Border, Derbyshire, Kolkata Knight Riders, Leicestershire, Lions, Somerset

 

 

Richard Levi:

 

Major teams: Western Province

 

 

Justin Ontong:

 

He started life as a batsman, and remained one until 1999-2000. But some acceptable legbreaks in the nets persuaded his coaches to encourage more of the same in the middle, and soon Ontong was mixing it up with offbreaks, quicker balls and wrong’uns. Ontong is also direct evidence of the effect a role model can have on the preceding generation. Jonty Rhodes was his hero as a young boy, and he now unquestionably has the potential to emulate him.

 

Ontong was the unwitting centre of controversy during his Test debut at Sydney in January 2002 when it emerged that Percy Sonn, the SA Board president, had overruled the selectors and insisted on the inclusion of Ontong, a Cape Coloured, ahead of Jacques Rudolph. It would be nearly three years before he earned another opportunity in Tests, but he eventually returned to the squad for the trip to India in November 2004.

 

Major teams: South Africa, Africa XI, Boland, Lions

 

 

Vernon Philander:

 

Vernon Philander is a powerful allrounder who has enjoyed consistent success with the Cape Cobras. He played for South Africa Under-19s on their tour of England in 2003 and the U-19 World Cup in Bangladesh. In 2004 he had a short stint with Devon and appeared in two C&G Trophy matches, helping Devon to a famous win over Leicestershire. In 2006-07 he produced an impressive one-day season for the Cobras, averaging 72 with the bat and 30 with the ball.

Major teams: South Africa, Cape Cobras, Devon, Middlesex, South Africa Under-19s, Western Province, Western Province Boland, Western Province Under-19s

 

 

Francois Plaatjies:

 

Major teams: Western Province

 

Monde Zondeki:

 

He enjoyed an excellent 2007-08 domestic season, during which he was the leading wicket-taker with 62 at 19.16, and was called up to South Africa’s Test squad to India after Charl Langeveldt pulled out. Zondeki was also Warwickshire’s overseas signing for the 2008 season. He got a chance again at the international level against the touring Kenyan and Bangladeshi sides in October and November 2008, and was later picked in the touring party for Australia.

 

Major teams: South Africa, Africa XI, Border, Cape Cobras, Warriors, Warwickshire

 

 

Author: Mona Gupta, Delhi.

 

 

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