Howzat!. Brenda Munitich

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      Chapter 3

      It was a very excited team, complete with their new mascot, Spike, that drove to Seven Oaks in the minibus early on Saturday morning; Spike sported a thin, dark navy cotton jacket with SAINTS embroidered neatly in white on either side, and secured underneath with velcro. With the matching dark blue collar he looked very smart. He’d tried to scratch the jacket off at first, but he soon got used to it and trotted about, showing off and getting patted by everyone.

      When they arrived at the field Brian saw that the Oaklands side – no girls in this team – were mostly black players. Very few of them were dressed in regulation whites. Most of them wore white shorts but coloured shirts. They spoke English to their visitors but Zulu amongst themselves.

      “Gosh, listen to those guys babbling away in Zulu,” David said, pointing to the only two white boys in the team. “Can you speak Zulu, Brian?”

      Brian shook his head. They had had a bit of it at his old school, but he could never get the hang of all the clicks. He had a sudden thought. JP speaks English well and yet I can’t speak his language at all. But then, JP doesn’t really talk to anyone.

      Sometimes he’d heard Charl and Cassie speak to JP in Zulu. They could both speak it well. He’d overheard Martin say rather nastily, “That’s because they live in the sticks and they only had Zulu children to play with.”

      Brian, as captain, was introduced to the team by Lucky Kunene, the opposing captain. That’s a cool thing to do, Brian thought. Most teams don’t bother about introducing the players. I must do that at matches in future. Most of the Oaklands team had names that he knew he could never hope to pronounce. Then Lucky took him across to introduce him to the Oaklands umpire, who was the father of one of the players – there didn’t seem to be a teacher around, which seemed a bit unusual. More astonishing still was the cricket field.

      If it can be called a cricket field, Brian thought.

      “See you just now for the toss,” Lucky said and strolled off towards his team mates. He called out to JP who trotted off and joined the Oaklands team. He must have said something funny because there was a burst of laughter from the guys. For once JP seemed lively; smiling at them all.

      “Guys … check this out,” Harry called, pointing with his score book.

      Brian looked to where he was pointing. The field was bounded on three sides by huge oak trees and sloped sharply to an open furrow on the fourth side. Two cows and a small flock of sheep stood calmly grazing on the far side. He looked around for Spike. “Hey Spike, come here boy, don’t you go off chasing any cows or sheep!”

      “Don’t worry,” Pauline called. “Robyn and I’ll look after him.”

      “Just now those animals will be on the field,” Martin said. He seemed to be in a good mood for the first time since Brian had known him.

      “No, they can’t cross that furrow,” Fizz said. “Look – it’s full of water.”

      They walked over. “There’s water all over the place,” said Peter. “I hope I don’t have to field here.”

      No, you don’t, thought Brian. Just my luck that I’ve put Martin at third man. He touched the slip of paper in his pocket, but he didn’t need to study it. He knew the fielding plan by heart. Martin was going to be standing right near the water. He’ll think I did it on purpose.Tough, he thought, he’s going to have to get used to it.

      “Let’s look at the pitch,” Brian suggested, wondering what it would be like.