Covid-19 enforced break has allowed Kagiso Rabada to recharge batteries

01 June 2020 - 16:13 By Tiisetso Malepa
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Proteas speedster Kagiso Rabada has won plenty of awards, including the SA Cricketer of the Year gong.
Proteas speedster Kagiso Rabada has won plenty of awards, including the SA Cricketer of the Year gong.
Image: Cricket SA via Twitter

Proteas superstar bowler Kagiso Rabada has said time away from cricket during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown has allowed him to set goals and think about what he really wants.

While the 25-year-old Johannesburg-born pace bowler covered himself in glory with 21 wickets in six Test matches during the past campaign‚ he also agrees the past season was a “disappointment” for the team as a whole.

“The past season was a disappointment‚” Rabada said forthrightly.

“Even if I look back and I reflect and see that my stats were okay‚ I just felt really rusty and a bit out of place‚ but I realise that it was never supposed to be easy‚ so I’m taking it day by day trying to achieve my new set of goals.”

The past season was the fifth with the Proteas for the Lions speedster since making his debut in a Twenty20 international against Australia in November 2014.

He has already represented South Africa at a Cricket World Cup and has since effortlessly shattered records in all formats of the game.

“I feel that these five years have really gone by very quickly‚” said Rabada who in 2018 surpassed the record held by legendary Indian bowler Harbhajan Singh to become the youngest ever bowler to take 150 wickets in Test cricket and also became the third fastest South African to reach 150 Test wickets in terms of matches played.

“There’s been a huge amount of cricket that was played. I’m just really glad that I can get a rest‚ not in the way that it has come‚ but it’s been good and I’ve really enjoyed my time off.

“It has allowed me to think about what I really want and it does make it easier to set goals.”

Rabada revealed that he has recovered from a minor knock he was carrying in mid-March just before cricket around the world was floored by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Before Covid‚ actually during or just before I had a minor injury in my groin and so I wasn’t doing much except for just rehab.

“Now I am healed so I wasn’t’ really doing much technical work‚” said Rabada who also revealed his partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to drum up wellness message around the world.

“Recently I started a project with a friend of mine called the Viral Wellness. Basically speaking it is just literally about spreading wellness.

“We did a few campaigns with the WHO and we formed a relationship with them and we are hoping to do much more in spreading wellness.

“Covid-19 has affected South Africa on multiple points of views. The one is economically‚ and a lot of people in the country are economically challenged and South Africa is the most unequal country in the world.

"So it is just good to lend a helping hand especially now because it adds an extra burden."

Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa confirmed at the weekend that non-contact sports such as cricket can resume events behind closed doors at level three starting from Monday.


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