Donald never one to duck the issue

Ian Stafford meets the South African who spearheads Warwickshire's attack

Allan Donald lobs a cricket ball to a colleague before producing a couple of perfect drop-kicks with a football less than an hour before the start of play against Essex, his county's NatWest final opponents tomorrow.

He watches as the ball soars across the Chelmsford outfield before trotting over to talk cricket. I mention to this fiercely proud South African that, never mind his national cricket side, the Springboks could have done with his kicking during the Lions series. It sparks an immediate reaction.

"I got so much stick when the Boks lost to the Lions," he admits, shaking his head with a wry smile. "We got what we deserved. The Boks were cocky and got smacked for it. The Lions had so much more passion and fight in them, and winning made them a close, confident unit."

This, it turns out, is the secret behind Warwickshire's success throughout the 1990s, as he and his county prepare for yet another one-day final. "I think the whole concept at Warwickshire changed with the arrival of Dermot Reeve," he explains, as we settle down in the pavilion.

"They can say what they like about him, but Dermot changed the face of cricket at Warwickshire, believe me. His inventions, his way of thinking, his shrewd knowledge of the opposition and the enthusiasm he generated into others caused an explosion at the club and created a new era."

Such credit from Donald is typical of the man who, despite his aggressiveness and competitiveness on the field, turns out to be a quiet and modest man in the pavilion. It is fair to say that the South African, too, has played his part as he nears the end of his 10th season.

"Yeah, well it's been great fun here," he admits. "I never dreamt I'd play in England for so long and especially not for one county, but I seem to keep on coming back and managing to avoid being released."

On three occasions his role at Warwickshire has been under threat, none more so than when a certain Brian Lara broke all batting records in 1994. "I alternated with Tony Merrick, the West Indian bowler, early on in my career and then Tom Moody appeared on the scene but the only one that hurt me was when Lara arrived."

Why was that? "Well, I had a telephone call from Dennis Amiss out of the blue and I was a bit shocked, to say the least. It was a major disappointment for me. I've never been the kind of guy to kick up a fuss, so I let it go. I had a lot of offers to go elsewhere in England, but I couldn't see myself anywhere else and I was determined to bounce back."

Which is precisely what he did. For someone who dreamt, as a boy, of playing in county cricket, he was not going to be dismissed as easily as that. "I ended up with 89 wickets the following season and bowled as well as I possibly could. I wasn't ready to leave English cricket just yet."

There was a time, 10 years ago, when Donald seriously considered registering himself as an English player. "It was in 1987 and I'd seen what Chris and Robin Smith and Allan Lamb had achieved over here," he admits. "I was desperate to represent a country and not necessarily my own. A year later, having started playing for Warwickshire, I was discussing it all with my colleague, Trevor Penney, who told me I should go for it. In the end Dr Ali Bacher persuaded me not to. He insisted that South Africa would be back playing international cricket within two years and he was right."

It was South Africa's gain and England's loss. Now, with 155 Test wickets under his belt from just 33 Tests, Donald is setting his sights on the South African wicket-taking record of 170, held by Hugh Tayfield, and beyond. "The target is to get to 200 by the World Cup, which will take some doing.

"But once the season with Warwickshire is finished, I've got a hell of a lot of international cricket ahead of me. Later this month I leave for a six-week tour of Pakistan. After eight days back home in Bloemfontein I then leave for three months in Australia, before returning in February to play three further home Tests against Pakistan and two against Sri Lanka. Then it's over here in England for a three-month tour with South Africa.

"It's a big, big year for us. We've got a few black youngsters coming up now, which is great for South Africa, but we need them. I get sick and tired of hearing how big a sporting nation we are because as far as I'm concerned, neither our rugby boys nor us are producing the goods.

"We should have beaten the Australians last winter, for example, and it really hurts that we didn't. I don't know if we've gone soft, but we had so much doubt when we played the Aussies Steve Waugh told me that they had more self-belief than us and that really burns me up."

Was he impressed with the Australians this summer in England? "They really showed their class," he says. "They arrived under-prepared, and their timing was all out. But after the first Test defeat they took stock of the situation and re-appeared for the second Test as a totally different outfit. Their quality came over after that. Still, a 2-3 home defeat to Australia's not bad, you know."

Really? Having played county cricket for 10 years, as well as international cricket all over the world, Donald is as good a judge as anyone when it comes to the parlous state of English cricket.

"Your best players play too much cricket," is his verdict. "And a lot of it is pretty average. You have a lot of decent cricketers in England, but there are also some who are below par. The question the game has to ask itself here is whether England come first, and the answer is no.

"For a hard, six-Test series against Australia, I'd name a squad and get the ECB to employ them purely as international players for the summer. This would mean no county cricket at all. The counties have too much power in England and money clearly talks, but the end result is that the England players are knackered. Physically and, even more importantly, mentally, they grow more and more tired as the summer goes on."

He nods his head towards the direction of Nasser Hussain, who jogs past us. "Take a guy like Nasser, who had a great Test series against Australia. Now he's playing us in a fairly meaningless county game at this stage of the season. It is almost impossible for the guy, after the summer he's had, to psyche himself up and, from what I saw yesterday in this game, he's clearly struggling a bit. What he needs is a good rest. I feel sorry for those guys, especially the bowlers, who I can particularly relate to."

Is it different in South Africa, then? "Totally. We have 10 teams, who play each other once every two weeks. In between we recover. I reckon that's why our will to win is greater than in England, because we're a great deal fresher. There's not much wrong with the talent in England, it's just the system."

Donald will be at the English, of course, next summer and, despite his strong ties and many friends in England, there will be no room for sympathy on the pitch. "I don't classify myself as English, so the first thing on my mind next summer will be to beat England and beat them well. If someone like Nick Knight's back in the England side, even though he's a good friend of mine and a county team-mate, I'll be there, right up his nose."

First there is the small matter of the NatWest final. After his five- wicket haul against Sussex in the semi-final, Donald may well be the key player once again. "Maybe, but it's all about on the day. I don't care how many good players Essex and we have, someone has to produce the goods when it matters."