Warriors’ batter, Eddie Moore, still has high hopes for a national Test call-up despite being overlooked for the past three seasons, writes Ongama Gcwabe.
South Africa is one of those few cricket-playing nations with an abundance of talent. Many talented cricketers have come and gone without ever representing their country for a host of different reasons.
This is mostly because there have been players who came before them and did well in international cricket. This shut the door closed on deserving cricketers at lower levels to make the step up to the international stage.
In this age where the media and fans have a powerful influence on the decisions made at international cricket, more often than not, deserving players are starved of opportunities because the spotlight is not on them.
Eddie Moore has been one of the most consistent batters in the country for the past five seasons but is yet to be given his flowers.
As an opener in domestic cricket, there hasn’t been any other batter who has scored as many runs as Eddie in the past four seasons (Franchise & Div.1).
As mentioned earlier, this is not the first time where a cricketer who has the numbers to back his case is being ‘ignored’ or not communicated with properly.
This happens more often to Eastern Cape-based talent; Colin Ackermann is one example, and to some extent, Colin Ingram is another example.
“So, throughout my career, I’ve always been the guy on the corner and always accepted what came my way.
“But now at the age of 28, I feel like I’m in a position where I have to open my mouth a little bit and ask fair questions. I’m not an unreasonable guy. I believe in fairness,” Eddie Moore told Cricket Fanatics Magazine in an exclusive interview.
“It feels like I’m being swept underneath the carpet. I don’t understand how an opening batter from St George’s Park and East London, which are probably the hardest places to bat in the country. Also, the leading run-scorer is hardly getting any recognition.”
Having spoken to Eddie and his parents before for a feature article, I know he is not one to dwell on negativity and he always looks at the positive end of any situation.
Read: A Champion-Minded Athlete
Eddie’s father said in our first feature: “His mother and I raised him (Eddie Jnr) based on honesty, integrity and on the phrase – ‘never blame people or circumstances if things don’t go your way’”.
Many professional athletes don’t have it in them to make a comeback after being overlooked for just one season. But Eddie has made a comeback season after season for the past four-five years of 4-Day cricket. Through the disappointment, it amazes me that he still speaks positively about his future,
“I have to make peace with it year-in-year-out and get my head down, work hard again and keep performing. That’s literally all that’s in my control,” Eddie continued.
“But when you do that for three/four seasons in a row, and you still don’t get the rewards that the guys behind you are getting then it does become a bit of a tiring process.
“Sometimes you don’t always understand why things are happening to you but hopefully one day when you look back to your journey and career things will make sense. For sure the fire is still burning inside of me to represent my country and to make my dreams come true.
“Sometimes there will be hurdles but you should pick yourself up and overcome those hurdles. One day you’ll look back and know it hasn’t come easy, the victory will be much sweeter at the end. That’s the kind of mentality I have right now; to ignore all the negativity that’s happening around me and just use it as fuel and motivation to make my dreams come true.”
Just before the 4-Day series started this season, Moore had severely hurt his thumb but persevered and went on to play the first match against Titans at Centurion and made scores of 110 & 4.
He played two games after that and batted in four innings with two scores of 50+ in those innings.
We have seen too many cricketers from the Eastern Cape having to move out of the province for them to receive some form of recognition from national selectors and the public.
Perhaps, Anrich Nortje is one example that doesn’t fit this basket. But one can only wonder if he would’ve gotten the recognition if it wasn’t for his time with the Cape Town Blitz in the Mzansi Super League. Everything he did in that tournament he had been doing for the Warriors down in the Eastern Cape for many seasons.
- The question I’m posing to everyone reading this is:
- Why are players from the smaller unions taking longer to get noticed and given opportunities as compared to the ones from the bigger unions/provinces?
- Why is it being allowed to happen?
- Why are we not asking questions and challenging what is very obvious to notice?
EDDIE MOORE vs TOP OPENERS IN SA DOMESTIC CRICKET (STATS FROM SHAUN ANALYTICS)
