World Cricket Legends in the Wild at &Beyond Phinda

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Six of India and South Africa’s greatest cricket legends gathered earlier this week at &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve for the highly anticipated ‘World Cricket Legends in the Wild’ match of a lifetime. Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Roger Binny, Graeme Pollock, Mike Procter and Peter Kirsten have enjoyed extraordinary cricketing careers, but all were in awe of making their debuts in the bush on our purpose-built Phinda pitch. The cricketing legends took to the ‘veld’ on a pitch usually inhabited by rhino, buffalo, cheetah, lion and the occasional herd of elephants.

Once the teams adjusted to the decidedly uneven outfield dotted with elephant and buffalo dung, their game matched the other ‘game’ on offer for sheer entertainment, with a flurry of fours and sixes sending the Phinda rangers and community children scuttling into the bush to retrieve balls that easily cleared the boundaries. A close, friendly, yet very competitive match was narrowly won by the South Africans, but all involved agreed the world-famous friendliness and hospitality of South Africans (and Phinda’s spectacular scenery) were the overall match winners.

Indian team captain and cricket demigod in India, Kapil Dev, said he has loved South Africa’s wide open spaces and untamed, wild beauty since he first visited in 1992. “Never in my life would I have thought I would play in a game like this, out in the wild in South Africa in such beautiful surroundings. This is an amazing country, which I really love visiting and playing this match here with people I have not seen for ages … some of them in decades, has been a treat and a pleasure,” said Dev. Dev’s big-hitting team-mate, Ajay Jadeja, was equally in awe. “This trip and playing in this match has been a highlight of my life and certainly of my career.” said Jadeja.

The match was hosted by &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in partnership with Indian company Beyond Boundaries, South African Tourism, Tourism Kwazulu-Natal and FirstRand Bank, with the aim of innovatively targeting India’s emerging tourism market through the experiences of some of the legends of world cricket.

In Zulu, Phinda means “return”. Dev certainly will, and in future years so too hopefully will thousands of Indians looking for their own uniquely South African experience.