An encounter with John Traicos

The name John Traicos evokes many memories. Born in Egypt, Traicos endured a 23-year wait between two Test appearances. He debuted with the mighty South African team of the late ‘60s and ended as the elder statesman in a young Zimbabwe side. He had a distinct offspinner's action and, even at 45, fielded brilliantly. Settled in Perth, he retains the stoic look and chooses his words carefully.

Traicos has witnessed discrimination all his life. He grew up in apartheid South Africa and later experienced the harsh realities in an ever-changing Zimbabwean landscape. He has strong views on racism and is visibly pained by the events of the past ten days. It gets even more interesting because Traicos’ team-mate during his early Tests was Mike Procter, the man at the centre of the current furore.

“I think a lot of racism in cricket can be misunderstood,” he says sternly, “but the cricketing environment we have at the present is important. We have a team that plays very hard and their style of play doesn’t help. A lot of players around the world respect the Australian cricketers but don’t necessarily enjoy their style of play.

“I don’t believe the atmosphere of sledging has helped at all. I don’t believe you need to sledge as a systematic process, simply because it gets to abuse. Everybody plays the game hard, and you play a bit of a prank now and than, but there’s a different between that and a systematic mental rattling. It’s a systematic feature of cricket that has to be eradicated.”