At 3.43pm at Newlands on Thursday, about four-and-a-half hours after he had bowled his final delivery as an international, Kyle Abbott appeared in Test whites for a last hurrah. It really was one more time with feeling. SA’s victory over Sri Lanka in the second Test seemed a week old when the squad spilled onto the outfield and made their way to the middle to sing the team song. Abbott was the only one among them still in his playing kit, save for a pair of slops where his bowling boots used to be. The huddle formed and the warbling went up into a cloudy sky. Then Abbott accepted the hugs and handshakes of people who, until Monday, did not know he had signed a four-year Kolpak contract with Hampshire five months ago. Almost two hours before Abbott had sat behind a thicket of microphones to explain why he had done such a thing, and had come within a single breath of melting into tears. "It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make through my years of playing cricket, but at t...
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