Proteas’ soft-spoken Baartman makes the ball do the talking in US

When Ottniel Baartman sat by the side of the Western Hope Cricket Club field in Bridgeton, Oudtshoorn, playing cricket in New York was the last thing on his mind.   

“For me, I wanted to be out of there. I wanted to have a better living, have a better future. 

“I knew with cricket that might happen,” he said in an interview with TimesLIVE earlier this year.

Softly spoken and not keen on saying very much anyway, Baartman made his World Cup debut against Sri Lanka on Monday and promptly took a wicket with his first ball. 

“It was a dream, what you want as a player. To get a wicket with the first ball is exceptional,” he said afterwards. 

In a Proteas attack including a modern great in Kagiso Rabada, the fire and brimstone of Anrich Nortjé and the glittering talent of Marco Jansen, it’s easy to miss Baartman. He doesn’t give any flashy quotes, his Instagram page is only about cricket and in the main is made up of other accounts pointing out when he has performed well. 

However, Baartman doesn’t believe that he is operating in the shadow of that trio. “I won’t say under the radar, there are world class players in South Africa. You have to stand out and produce the performances and I feel the last couple of years have been a stand out for me, especially with the ball on and off the field.” 

It is through the SA20 that Baartman garnered the public’s attention. He was first picked for the Test tour to Pakistan in 2021, on the back of solid performances domestically for the KZN Dolphins. It was somewhat surprising, but then he missed the trip with an illness.

When the SA20 came around, the Sunrisers Eastern Cape made Baartman one of their two pre-auction signings — meaning they didn’t want to risk him going to another team. The other was Aiden Markram.     

Baartman thrived in that family environment created by Markram and the head coach, Adrian Birrell. He was instrumental in what was a surprising run to the final and ultimately the team’s victory in the inaugural edition of that competition. 

He was subsequently called up to the Proteas, for white ball matches against India, but again, injury robbed him of a start. Not that Rob Walter, the Proteas limited overs coach had forgotten him. “Rob Walter told me that with good performances in the SA20 and the domestic league, I’m in with a shout.”

Baartman promptly took 18 wickets in the second edition of the SA20, an improvement on his 2023 performance, leaving Walter with no option. 

That also grabbed the attention of the Delhi Capitals, who called him up as part of their extended squad for the IPL, thus providing Baartman with his first opportunity to make a trip overseas, at the age of 31. 

He’s now chalked off Delhi, Miami, Kingston and New York in just two months. He took three wickets on debut against the West Indies and then in his first World Cup match got the wicket of Pathum Nissanka. 

Sure it was a helpful surface, but as a bowler, you still have to put the ball in the right areas. “I’d take this wicket with me everywhere,” Baartman said of the drop-in surface at the Nassau County Stadium. 

“You always judge the wicket when both sides are batting, it did seem like a tough wicket to bat on for both sides, but we have to make it work. It’s the first time I’m playing in this country, on these wickets both teams didn’t know what to expect, but from here on we will get better and better.”

The travelling doesn’t end with the World Cup either. Baartman has been snapped up by the Hampshire Hawks for the T20 Vitality Blast competition in England, a reflection of just how much of an impression he has made in the last couple of years. 

While his teammates posted pictures of Yankee Stadium, Times Square, Central Park and the city skyline of New York, Baartman was happy just to pose for pics. He’s not uploaded any to Instagram yet. 

Asked about playing in New York, Baartman simply offered: “It was a good atmosphere.”