Not some Fancy Dan

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Not some Fancy Dan
Wisden CricInfo staff - February 28, 2002

Allan Donald's retirement means Test cricket has lost one of its most popular and formidable performers, whose devastating bowling and spine-tingling duels with batsmen, including the famous face-off with Mike Atherton at Trent Bridge in 1998, will go down in history. Here some of those who knew and admired him pay tribute to AD

Angus Fraser

Angus Fraser counts the bruises as he remembers Allan Donald - and one spell in particular

Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose got it right, as did Mike Atherton at The Oval last year. A standing ovation from a full house is the way everyone would like his Test career to end. Allan Donald will rightly go down as one of the greats of modern cricket. To leave the field as he did - injured, in tears, and helped off by his team-mates - would not have been his farewell dream. He deserved better, but this game is cruel at times. Some get the chance of a last fanfare - others don't. But Donald can look back proudly on an outstanding career.

Facing him was a daunting proposition. His pure, simple action meant he was relatively easy to pick up, but his pace was regularly more than enough for top players, let alone me and my limited resources.

The one time I did just manage to get the better of him was in the third Test at Old Trafford in 1998. South Africa got millions, bowled us out, and made us follow on ... and slowly but surely worked their way through our order as the last day progressed.

Some days you have a feeling when you get to the ground that today you might have an important role to play with the bat at some stage. On this day I felt just that.

In this game Donald was outstanding. He was the difference between the two teams, really, getting pace and bounce out of a lifeless surface. At times some England players have questioned his heart when the going got tough, but in this match and throughout that series he proved those doubters wrong.

For eight-and-a-half sessions he roared in and was bowling as quickly at me, as I tried to keep out his last 13 deliveries, as he had at the start of the game. You could see he was out on his feet but he kept going, kept putting in that one last effort in an attempt to win the game that would probably have won them the series.

I remember him attempting to bowl me a yorker with the last ball of the Test after several short balls had struck me all over the body. It hit me on the back boot, and would have gone down the leg side ... but he and the rest of the South Africans put in a huge appeal. Fortunately for us the umpire rightly turned it down.

I think he sunk to his knees in exhaustion, but after Robert Croft, who was at the non-striker's end, Allan was the first person I wanted to congratulate as his performance in that game that had been inspiring.

Throughout his career he was a bowler's bowler, not some Fancy Dan looking for the spotlight. He worked hard, played hard and made life as uncomfortable out there for you as he possibly could. But this didn't stop him enjoying a beer and a chat with you at the end of a day's play or after the game.

To me he played the game as it should be played. He won't just be missed in South Africa. But for opposition players, at least, seeing him at any cricket ground will now be a purely pleasurable experience.

Angus Fraser, Middlesex's captain and a member of Wisden Cricket Monthly's editorial board, played ten Tests against Allan Donald, and Donald only got him out three times. Angus only reached double figures once, though.

Steven Lynch, Wisden.com's database director

Allan Donald bowled the fastest spell I ever witnessed - against Australia at Sydney in January 1998. He was tearing in at the Waughs, and the speed made you breathe in sharply and whistle through your teeth. And made you very glad you weren't out there facing the chin music. He hit both twins, but couldn't separate them - not until Steve had gritted to 85 in his 100th Test, anyway - but he might have done if Hansie Cronje had spotted their discomfort and shoved in a short leg.

Colin Croft, former West Indies fast bowler turned journalist

My most vivid recollection of him comes from the second Test of the 1998-99 series, a disastrous one for West Indies. Donald had been firing on all cylinders in the first Test, and the West Indies batsmen were so worried about his speed and aggression at Port Elizabeth, with its nicely grassed pitch, that one opening batsman had a medical miracle. Philo Wallace came down with a one-day glandular fever. Enquiries to my medical friends confirm that it's impossible to recover that quickly, so it must have been a miracle.

Another opener, Stuart Williams, announced that he had gout, and would have to bat at No. 7. And worse, we saw a batsman actually freeze at the crease. Floyd Reifer literally dragged his bat along the ground all the way to the crease, contemplating facing Donald. In he steamed, and an edge flew to Daryll Cullinan at slip. Through all of this, neither the batsman nor his bat moved at all. So Reifer's first movement after taking guard was that first step to trudge back to the pavilion. I have always said that if he ever played for West Indies again, I would give up sports journalism. Thankfully, he has not ... so far.

It is sad to see Allan Donald leave Test cricket, but he has served his country well for 10 years. In this day and age, 10 years' cricket is a lifetime.

Stephen Fay, editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly

What I liked best was the side-on view of his action, which looked an exploding Catherine Wheel.

Dennis Amiss, former Warwickshire batsman, now their chief executive

Allan Donald's first season for Warwickshire - 1987 - was my last, and after facing him in an early-season practice match I realised I was going out of the game at the right time. He was and still is a Warwickshire Bear in every sense. Total commitment, total team player and a total club man - and therefore a totally good bloke.

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