A ton of Tests is not the true measure of Hashim Amla’s greatness
Crooked backlift. Too unorthodox. Too other. He’ll never survive. But Hashim Amla has survived — since 1999 in the first-class arena and‚ as a Test player‚ since 2004. It’s too easy to drown the significance of what he has achieved in the sea of numbers cricket deems important. But Amla is nothing if not real. So let’s keep the numbers on a real scale. Amla has spent 41,081 minutes at the crease in first-class matches. That’s the equivalent of almost 685 hours‚ or more than 28-and-a-half 24-hour days. In Tests he has batted for just about 361 hours — a mite more than 15 days and nights. The kid with the backlift aimed towards gully‚ who made his first-class debut at 16‚ who scored SA’s only Test triple century at the Oval in 2012‚ who completed a double century and resigned the Test captaincy all in one match at Newlands last year‚ is on the verge of a moment that will doubtless be more important to millions around the world than it will seem to him. On Thursday‚ when Amla crosses t...
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