Maharaj a man for all seasons, and formats

A South Africa team that doesn't include Keshav Maharaj is as rare as a sponsor's logo on the front of the players' shirts. Almost, anyway.

Measured from his debut in each format, Maharaj has played in 80.82% of South Africa's Tests and 60% of their T20Is. But in only 43.75% of their ODIs. The equation might have been different had he not been out of the selectorial spotlight for four ODIs and five T20Is while he recovered from the Achilles he ruptured in March 2023.

Maharaj's relative rarity in ODIs is partly explained by the fact that he made his way into international cricket as a Test bowler. And because he came up while Imran Tahir was South Africa's white-ball spinner of choice.

Tahir's last ODI was at the 2019 World Cup. South Africa have since played 68 matches in the format, and Maharaj has featured in 45. Or 66.18% of them.

Never has he been as dominant as he was in Cairns on Tuesday, when he found turn and bounce and took 5/33 - his first five-wicket haul in his 49th ODI.

Maharaj claimed all of his wickets with his first 26 deliveries, in which the only scoring shots off his bowling were nine singles.

He trapped Marnus Labuschagne in front with his first ball of the match, which was delivered from round the wicket and straightened like a well-aimed knife after pitching - on leg stump - full enough to ambush the batter on the back foot. Labuschagne reviewed, and his teammates waiting to bat would have been alarmed to see the amount of turn extracted before the ball would, the gizmos said, have nailed the top of middle stump.

Alex Carey also reviewed his lbw decision after he missed a first-ball sweep to Maharaj and was hit on the boot. This time off stump was the designated target.

Carey came to the crease after Maharaj bowled a tentative Josh Inglis. Cameron Green and Aaron Hardie were also bamboozled, beaten and bowled.

It was a masterclass in left-arm spin, and it helped South Africa win the first of the three games in the series by 98 runs. The visitors' 296/8 - fuelled by Aiden Markram's 82, Temba Bavuma's 65, Matthew Breetzke's 57 and Wiaan Mulder's 26-ball 31 not out, which realised stands of 92 between Markram and Ryan Rickelton and another 92 between Bavuma and Breetzke - proved more than enough on the day/night.

Fine left-arm spinner though he is, Maharaj is rubbish at talking himself up.

"I was very fortunate to get the rewards," he told a press conference. "I mean, I put the balls in the right area but it's not often that happens."

Listening to him, you would be forgiven for thinking the pitch was the overarching factor in his success.

"Especially with that newer ball, there was a tacky reaction off the wicket. As the ball got softer, it was negated. But there was more spin later in the innings, maybe because it was a used pitch."

Maharaj is exactly the kind of person South African cricket dearly needs to go into administration once his playing days are over. What are the chances?

"A lot of people ask me what's next. Even though I'm 35 years old, I believe in my journey. I'm always learning. The day I stop learning is the day that I have to walk away from the game."

And straight into a committee room, it is to be hoped. Speaking of the dreaded suits, sponsors deserted CSA in the throes of an administrative meltdown that reached its nadir in 2019, when cricket in South Africa had been reduced to a deepening puddle of problems. Thanks for nothing, former president Chris Nenzani and fired chief executive Thabang Moroe.

Thanks for cleaning up the mess, current chief executive Pholetsi Moseki, serial acting chief executive - or maybe a glutton for punishment - Jacques Faul and former chair Lawson Naidoo. To president Rihan Richards, who is from the bad old days, thank you for not getting in the way of progress. Evidence of all that on Tuesday was the presence of the Suzuki logo where South Africa's playing shirts have been blank for so long.

Maharaj, too, is cut from the kind of selfless cloth needed to tailor the game's best custodians. Even so, there is an ego in there somewhere.

Tuesday's game was his only match since the first Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in the last week of June, when he no doubt still had a bee in his bonnet about bowling only a dozen of the 121.4 overs South Africa sent down to beat Australia in the WTC final at Lord's earlier that month.

That happened purely because of the conditions and how the match unfolded. Good luck convincing Maharaj of that. His meekness with the media contrasts strongly with the vocal, valuable presence he is in the dressingroom.

Hence, in the absence of the injured Bavuma, Maharaj was named captain for the Tests in Zimbabwe. But he missed the second match, also in Bulawayo, with a groin strain. Then he wasn't picked for the T20I triseries involving New Zealand that followed in Harare, and was also left out of the squad for the three T20Is South Africa played in Darwin and Cairns in the past 10 days.

In an era in which batting ability seems to matter more than anything in T20 cricket, that Maharaj has a highest score of 45 not out and a strike rate of 106.81 after 95 innings in the format doesn't help his cause. Especially not with players like George Linde - who has four half-centuries and a strike rate of 135.27 in his 164 T20 innings - also in the mix.

Even so, other players might be happy with a break. Maharaj isn't happy unless he's playing.

"I was disappointed [to be left out], but I think the coaching staff felt a certain way. So it's nice to put in a performance to show I can do it in the shorter formats."

This from a bowler who has taken 11 five-wicket hauls and a 10-for in Tests, who has taken more wickets for South Africa in that format than any other spinner, and at a better average not only than Paul Adams, Paul Harris, Nicky Boje and Pat Symcox, but also better than Andre Nel, Jacques Kallis, Brian McMillan and Eddie Barlow.

Earth to Maharaj: yes, you can do it in any format. Earth to selectors: think once, twice, thrice when you're deciding whether or not to pick Maharaj. Then pick him.