Rondebosch Boys High School has been blessed with some fine cricketers through the years who kicked on to play on the grandest stage of all, the ICC Cricket World Cup, Gary Kirsten and Jonathan Trott chief among them.
As a member of Rondebosch’s Class of 2015 – a year loaded with cricketing talent – I always enjoyed chats around which member of our class would be the first to grace the World Cup stage: Would it be Murray Commins, son of former Protea John?
Would it be Dayyaan Galiem who was hailed as the “next Jacques Kallis” after an otherworldly performance in Grade 9 with bat and ball against DF Malan? No.
On the day of his World Cup debut, it is to be Ryan Klein who’ll don the orange of The Netherlands and give the Bosch community something to cheer.
In our final year of high school, our Head Boy encouraged us to adopt a mentality of “Everyone Backs Everyone”. He didn’t need to be, but Ryan had been backing me for years at that point.
As I grappled with my identity and sense of self, the testosterone-fuelled environment of an All-Boys school was often unforgiving. It was easy to get under my skin and many of my peers knew it. Some even preyed upon it.
One such guy would go out of his way to give me grief about a myriad of things. Like Ryan, a weekly boarder in Canigou Boarding House, this individual bragged to him one day about how much fun it was to taunt me.
Ryan would later tell me that he cautioned this guy against giving me trouble again or would have him to deal with.
The size differential couldn’t have been more in Ryan’s favour and the guy never bothered me again.
The likable right-arm quick may have forgotten this but I certainly haven’t forgotten this random act of kindness.
Nor will I forget the jokes and the banter in Mr Domingo’s History Class or the stunned silence we shared upon receiving our Mock Matric results.
It’s funny how life goes. In a Grade with enough clowns to fill out a circus troupe, it was some of the most gifted sportsmen, those with every reason to not give me the time of day who’d remind me why I loved being a Bosch Boy.
In Hyderabad against New Zealand in Match 6 of the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, one of those gifted people will add his name to the list of Rondebosch representatives at the game’s global showpiece, much to the delight of an old mate who’ll be backing him all the way.
Photo: Netherlands Cricket/Twitter
