Two years later I knew for sure that Graeme would be a Test cricketer. Others looked more elegant, but he scored more runs. He played a little bit of rugby and was reasonably academic, but cricket was always his first love. I took him to the nets at the Wanderers ground in Johannesburg, discussed the game with him and looked to correct some technical faults. Even then, he scored heavily off his legs, but the bat did not always come through straight.
He used to close the face and hence hit the ball through the on-side. When I watch him now, I know that when he hits through mid-off he is playing well.
He was a fantastic young man to work with off the field as well as on it, because his parents instilled the right morals and values in him and he was fortunate in that he went to a school with a cricketing tradition. King Edward’s in Johannesburg nurtured Ali Bacher and Kevin and Neil McKenzie among others.
Three years ago, when Graeme was 19 and I was in my first year as coach of Hampshire, I brought him to England. He stayed with me for two months — his family had become good friends by then — and we worked together in the nets and on the bowling machine at the old county grounds in Northlands Road, but he only had a couple of unofficial matches for the second XI before having to go back to South Africa with a knee injury.
So Hampshire never knew of him or realised what potential he had. I did tell Tim Tremlett, one of their coaches, that Graeme could become something special, but unfortunately he did not see him play and there was no prospect of him being taken on as an overseas player. So that was Graeme’s sole experience of cricket in England before this tour, and his international commitments will be such now that he might never be able to play county cricket.
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What was I able to do to help improve his technique? When he was at school, I was able to talk to him on a slightly higher level than one of his masters may have been able to do. I tried to help him hit through the line of the ball with his top hand, to wait that little bit longer before shaping to play at it, and to execute his shots closer to his front pad.
I emphasised the importance of not giving his wicket away, and maybe he saw me as a former South Africa opener whose opinions would be worth hearing.
Before they left for England, Eric Simons, the South Africa coach, and Graeme asked me to spend three days at their training camp. I worked on one or two things with him, Jacques Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs.
Graeme and I send each other text messages virtually every day — if he was struggling, it would probably be more often. Before his innings at Lord’s, I told him he still had to get in against the new ball, and yesterday morning I reminded him of the 64 runs he needed to beat his own record score against England.
Graeme has been kind enough to say that I am his mentor. Those who said he should not have been made captain at such a young age, such as Bob Woolmer, did not know him as a boy. When anybody has asked my opinion, I have just said that this is no average 22-year-old — I thought he would handle the captaincy easily.
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He was asked to speak to South Africa’s Under-19 side before they departed for their tour of England, and his talk made my hair stand on end. His maturity was way beyond his years. He reminded players who were only three years younger than him of the honour of playing for South Africa and of the way in which they should handle themselves.
Remember, he said to them, you are the lucky 15. He will make a point of seeing them play this summer if he can. He never sees cricket as a job.
The most difficult period of his captaincy will be now, when he has just started. He has to concentrate on his own batting, and in an ideal world he would be able to do so.
When the Australians had a go at him on the pitch, he went straight back at them. He is not up to being nasty and his side will not take on that sort of attitude. Can he carry on captaining South Africa for 10 years? Yes, he has the potential to be able to do so.
Jimmy Cook is a former South Africa and Somerset opening batsman who used to coach Hampshire. He now coaches Gauteng B