India and South Africa's A teams recently played 3 four-day matches ©Getty
Cricket is famously big on numbers. Think of a novel way of crunching them and some accountant in pads probably has been there, done that and plugged the equation into the game's grand statosphere. But here's one that will no doubt dip below the radar. And it features a century, no less.
When South Africa A next take the field in a first-class match, they will do so for the 100th time. Of the flood of facts cricket sends our way, that is sure to wash past us unnoticed. Who could care that a team few beyond the players and their coaches and parents think about will bring up a century of games?
Jimmy Cook, for a start. Aged 40, he captained South Africa A in the first of those 99 matches, against England A at St George's Park in January 1994. The home side included Mickey Arthur and Eric Simons, and they faced Darren Gough and Peter Such. Here's how Cook recalled the occasion in conversation with Cricbuzz: "I played one game [for South Africa A]. It was against England ... or perhaps England A, or something like that. Down in PE [Gqeberha]. It was later in my career, and they probably wanted one or two experienced guys to go with the youngsters."
Many would forgive Cook for his fuzzy memory. In 1994, no-one quite knew what to do with this strange new thing called A team cricket. Was it a reward for stalwart servants of the game who had never cracked it at the highest level? Was it a testing ground for the next generation of internationals that offered something they couldn't experience in domestic competition? Why was it called A team cricket when, clearly, it was played by B teams?
Almost 28 years on, not a lot would seem to have changed. On Thursday the A teams of South Africa and India completed a
