SHAUN POLLOCK- PLAYING FOR THE HOME SIDE

Shaun Pollock is playing the game of his life.

With giggling 16-month-old Georgia supported on his broad shoulders and four year- old Jemma hot on his heels, South Africa’s lanky all-rounder and former captain gallops through his Hillcrest estate home near Durban making uninhibited horsy noises.
BY GLYNIS HORNING

He led the South African cricket team through the Hansie Cronjé crisis and has come back courageously from setbacks of his own. Today he’s still on top of his game, especially in the field that matters most to him – family life

SHAUN’S elegant blonde wife Tricia rolls her eyes in mock derision, and shoos him and Jemma outside for iced tea on the verandah.

The view stretches from paddocks with real horses at a neighbouring luxury lodge to stately avenues of plane trees, patches of forest and endless, flower- filled green meadows – reminders of the very different fields upon which Shaun usually plays.

“Make no mistake, I love cricket,” he muses, cradling his daughters on his lap and taking in the scene, “but there’s so much more to life. For me it’s all about balance.”

BEGINNINGS
Shaun’s childhood was relaxed and happy. As the youngest of four children of cricketing great Peter Pollock and his wife Inez he was “no doubt the most indulged”, he says with a grin. But indulgence was tempered with sensible loving boundaries that became more loving after his parents found God, he says. He was 12 when his father became an evangelist. “The change I saw in him and Mom inspired me to change too, and the values and lessons I learnt still guide Tricia and our family today.”

They have also guided Shaun’s cricketing career, born on the lawn of his parents’ modest Durban home when he was given his first bat at the age of six. “I played with my older brother Gavin; we’d each pretend to represent a different country.”

With a natural sporting talent for which he takes no credit (though he admits to putting in the disciplined hard work) Shaun played hockey and cricket for local school Northwood and for the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he also scored “a fair BCom” with a focus on marketing.

But it was on the pitch that he made his mark from the start, more motivated than intimidated by the expectations of the Pollock name. “Dad had retired but I watched my uncle in action.” (His uncle is cricket legend Graeme Pollock.) Shaun started club cricket at 15 and was first selected for a South African side at 22.

“I was mixing with guys in their thirties with different careers and families, and it taught me as much about life as about cricket. It helped me relate to a range of people, to listen and weigh views and make decisions based on my values.”

CAPTAINCY
These leadership skills were tested by fire when at 26 Shaun was thrown into the captaincy at the height of the Hansie Cronjé match-fixing storm. “It was pressured, but I enjoy leading.

And what I had to do was quite simple: refocus on cricket and put people’s faith back in the team.” Ironically, he was helped by lessons he’d learned from Hansie himself, such as the importance of taking in the opinions of others then leading from the front.

And he continued to learn after Hansiegate, from the courage it took Cronjé to own up, make amends and get back on track.

Shaun has called on his courage many times since, when his form has dipped and his team lost. But it burnt brightest when South Africa lost the 2003 World Series as the host favourites and he was stripped of the captaincy, and again last year when he was dropped from the Test side for the first time.

“It’s only human to have a few feelings wind up inside you,” he says evenly as his daughters trot off to the swings and Tricia slides in quietly beside him. “But I believe things are sent to test us. I use Biblical principles to deal with life. My faith, and now Tricia and our daughters, bring the ultimate balance in life.”

ROMANCE
Shaun met the former Miss South Africa finalist about 10 years ago when she worked in marketing for a cellphone company that sponsored the South African team.

He was bowled over from the beginning: “Tricia was this unassuming, gorgeous, warm, open girl.” She was impressed by Shaun’s “sincere manner, strong principles and refreshing innocence, which he’s never really lost”.

After two years of “dating and waiting” while he toured the world Shaun dropped to one knee beside a Berg stream and proposed.

They were married a few months later. Eight years later the pull between them is still palpable. “It’s been hard having Shaun away two thirds of the time,” she says. “But I know the travelling will end and it’s in the best interests of our family that he’s realised his dream.”

MARRIAGE
Shaun nods emphatically. “Having a family changes your outlook,” he says. “Before I was very much sports-focused. With a wife and kids you see that other things are far more important.

I still give 100 per cent to my game and try my very best. But I know what’s most valuable is relationships and the way you live life in all its aspects.”

He and Tricia have worked hard at ways to keep their relationship strong across the kilometres. “We talk three or four times a day, using a videophone when Shaun’s in the country,” Tricia says. “Jemma and Georgia even run around with toy cellphones pretending to talk to Daddy!”

They also make sure they feed their romance, albeit by phone. “I get at least two poems a week from Shaun by SMS. He’s no Wordsworth but they rhyme and I adore them. Like many men he finds it hard to be gushy so he uses humour. It’s his way of giving me what I need in a romantic way.”

They’re also always there for each other for “the big talks”, when a loving ear and support are most needed. “When Shaun went through a dip in form two years ago I could see he was frustrated with himself. But in spite of all the pessimism around him and the critics writing him off he just had this unwavering belief that it was in God’s hands and that he would be led through it.

As it turned out, with faith and determination he came back as Cricketer of the Year, winning three of the four Man of the Series awards last season. We could definitely see God in that!”

FATHERHOOD
Shaun and Tricia’s shared faith and values are the cornerstone of their marriage, countering what she says are their very different personalities. “But they complement each other so there’s balance.” That word again. “I’m more intense, Shaun is laidback. But he’s also extremely driven and organised when he needs to be.”

As parents they make a point of standing together firmly but lovingly. “He and the girls miss each other so it’s easy to be overindulgent,” sighs Tricia. “But it’s important not to spoil and to have boundaries, especially if you’re operating as a single parent a lot of the time.

It’s also important to maintain the idea that he’s head of the house and not just a visitor.” She constantly reinforces this. “Jemma recently asked for a pet bunny for Christmas. I told her that Dad will have the final say. Even though he hasn’t been around for the day-to-day disciplining it’s important that the girls respect him and understand he’s the boss.”

Shaun can be demanding too, as he was as a captain. “But he’s very fair and prepared to compromise if there’s a good reason. He’s remarkably easy-going.”

FITNESS
The legendarily “straightest of straight bowlers” has been teetotal all his life. “But I’m also fun-loving, not a Biblebashing puritan, so the team tolerates it,” he says with a shrug.

At 1,87 m Shaun weighs 89 kg. He stays in shape with his cricket training and games and also gyms for 45 minutes twice a week (weight and core training – he gets enough cardio on the field).

He plays golf off a two handicap (though it drifts to four or five when he’s playing cricket), hockey for the Mike Madsen Eleven (mostly old Springboks who take on schools’ first teams) and occasional tennis with Tricia, who also walks on the estate for exercise.

At her insistence Shaun sees a skin specialist twice a year for checkups. “Having brown eyes helps. I’m not as fair as other redheads. I tan but I use factor 15 or 16 sunblock, and far higher for my face. And Tricia gives me moisturiser from the Body Shop – don’t you, angel?”

THE FUTURE
Shaun believes with his experience he still has a significant contribution to make to cricket.

But when the time comes to stop playing – and he already knows when this will be – “I’ll just say thanks and that will be that,” he says calmly. He’s looking forward to new challenges using his marketing degree in a sports-related field but also to using his profile in community projects. He, Tricia and their close friends Jonty and Kate Rhodes are exploring projects centred on Aids orphans.

“South Africa is a fantastic country and I appreciate it more each time I’m away,” he says, raising his iced tea to his special patch of it. “We want to find ways to share resources and sound values, to make it safe for our girls and for all its children.”

SHAUN’S SECRETS FOR LIVING YOUR BEST LIFE

1. HAVE FAITH and respect the faiths of others.


2. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF; if you don’t who will?


3. KNOWYOUR TALENTS are on loan from God for a certain number of years – use them to the best of your ability.


4. NURTURE YOUR TALENTS with hard work and discipline – they’re not enough on their own.


5. GIVE 100 PER CENT: if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing properly.


6. CHERISH YOUR FAMILY: relationships are what matter most in the end.


7. DON’T THINK TOO FAR AHEAD – take life, like cricket, season by season.


8. USE SETBACKS TO GROW. As basketball star Michael Jordan said, “I’ve failed over and over again in my life and that’s why I succeed.”


9. BE A POSITIVE ROLE MODEL in whatever you do – you don’t know who you may be influencing nowand in the future.


10. STAY HUMBLE: keep your head small and your feet on the ground.

FAVOURITES

Food: Chicken salad with strawberries, almonds and pineapple, and Mozart Super Caramel ice cream.
TV Programme: Any sport, Discovery when I’m away, and a little Disney channel with the girls when I’m home.
Book: Wild at Heart by John Eldredge (Thomas Nelson) and The Power of Simple Prayer: How to Talk to God about Everything by Joyce Meyer (FaithWord).
Song: Shining Light by Tree 63.
Movie: High School Musical 2 at the moment because I can discuss the characters with Jemma.
Holiday Destination: Zimbali, when our holiday home in the coastal forest is finished!
Quotation: “If you believe it, then it can happen. Remember this all started with a mouse.”(Walt Disney)
Cricketing Inspiration: Graeme Pollock and late West Indian fast bowler Malcolm Marshall.
Life Inspiration: People who make the best of their lives no matter what their circumstances.

Specific sport: Cricket

YOU Pulse Summer 2007/8