Clive Rice
Clive Edward Butler Rice was a South African international cricketer. An all-rounder, Rice ended his First Class cricket career with a batting average of 40.95 and a bowling average of 22.49. He captained Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club from 1979 to 1987.
His career coincided directly with South Africa's sporting isolation, and his international experience was limited to his post-prime days. He played three One Day Internationals for South Africa following the country's return from sporting isolation. He was controversially left out of the squads for the one-off Test against West Indies and the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Despite this he is widely regarded as one of the best all-rounders of his generation, alongside Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and his county team-mate Richard Hadlee.
On 28 July 2015, Rice died in hospital at the age of 66, suffering from a brain tumour.
Early and personal life
Rice was born to Patrick and Angela on 23 July 1949 in Johannesburg, Transvaal Province, Union of South Africa. Rice's grandfather Philip Salkeld Syndercombe Bower played cricket for Oxford University while his brother Richard was selected for Transvaal but was unable to play due to exams.Rice worked for a street-lighting company called Envirolight in Johannesburg and his wife Susan heads a Sports Tour and Bush safari company. The couple have two children.
Career
Domestic career
Rice began his career with Transvaal in 1969 and was called up for South Africa's tour of Australia in 1971–72. In South African domestic cricket he successfully led the 1980s Transvaal, known as the "Mean Machine", to three Castle Currie Cups and other one-day competition victories. Toward the end of his playing career, he played for and captained Natal.He became the first cricketer to score 5000 runs and to take 500 wickets in List A cricket history
Career in English domestic cricket
Rice played for Nottinghamshire in the English County Championship in a side that also featured internationals Richard Hadlee and Derek Randall. As captain, he led the side to the County Championship title in both 1981 and 1987, winning the prestigious award of being named a Wisden cricketer of the year for his exploits in 1981. He later played for Scotland.International cricket
Along with other South African players, Rice was excluded from international cricket by the sporting boycott of South Africa due to his country's policy of apartheid.Rice joined World Series Cricket setup in 1978-79. He played three Supertests for the WSC World XI, enjoying three victories. In the first one, against Australian XI, the World XI were 5-53 when Rice came to the wicket, and scored 41, taking the World XI to 6-138 - these runs proved crucial in the team's victory. Against the West Indies XI, Rice made 83 and took three wickets as WSC World XI won by an innings and 44 runs. In his third Supertest, against Australia, Rice took three tickets.
During the 1980s, a number of rebel cricket teams visited South Africa to play unofficial "Test" matches. Rice captained the home side for the majority of these fixtures.
In 1985-86 an Australian XI toured. The South Africa XI won the 3-match test series 1-0, and the 6-match one-day series 4-2. In the third test, Rice took a hattrick in Australia's second innings. In the 2nd one-day match, Rice scored 91 off 93 balls; in the third he made 78 and took 3-25; in the fourth he scored 44 and took 4-45; in the 6th he made 95.
Rice was able to make his debut in official international cricket in 1991, when, aged 42, he played in—and captained—South Africa's first One Day International, in a match against India at Eden Gardens, Calcutta. Rice finished with averages of 13 with the bat and 57 with the ball from his three One Day International matches.
Alongside Jimmy Cook, he was controversially dropped for the 1992 Cricket World Cup squad. He was widely regarded as the most credible candidate for team captain due to his decades of experience. Rice initially refused to comment on his omission, but was reported to have been visibly upset when the team was announced. The Johannesburg Sunday Times conducted a poll which showed that 47 out of South Africa's top 66 cricketers opposed the exclusion of Rice and other senior players. Some were quoted in the paper as saying the selectors were "clowns" and they should resign for the omission of three "automatic choices". Peter [van der Merwe (cricketer)|Peter van der Merwe], the chairman of the selection panel, dismissed the poll and said it did not concern him. After being left out of the world cup squad, which he attributed to personal differences with van der Merwe, Rice stood down as Transvaal captain for the remainder of the domestic season in order to be a commentator for the world cup on the Nine Network in Australia.
In 1993 he captained the South African side at that years Hong Kong Sixes tournament.