One of the greatest rivalries in cricket!
An interesting incident that Atherton recalls here
"A good bit of barney' is a nice way of putting it. For some reason, Allan Donald got very upset when I punched a short delivery to the wicket-keeper, Mark Boucher, and was given not out. Trevor Bailey, commentating on the BBC at the time, said that he thought the ball came off my chest. It nearly broke my hand, and I was doing all I could not to shake it too obviously in front of the umpire. It provoked a fair bit of 'barney'. What did he say? Well, there was a fair bit of Afrikaans thrown in, which is not my strong suit, although it didn't sound like he was complimenting my technique.
An interesting incident that Atherton recalls here
"A good bit of barney' is a nice way of putting it. For some reason, Allan Donald got very upset when I punched a short delivery to the wicket-keeper, Mark Boucher, and was given not out. Trevor Bailey, commentating on the BBC at the time, said that he thought the ball came off my chest. It nearly broke my hand, and I was doing all I could not to shake it too obviously in front of the umpire. It provoked a fair bit of 'barney'. What did he say? Well, there was a fair bit of Afrikaans thrown in, which is not my strong suit, although it didn't sound like he was complimenting my technique.
What was going through my head? Well I could give you all the nonsense about how much it meant, playing for England and all, and how much the situation of the game meant, but in all honesty the only thing going through my head was too watch the ball as closely as I could, because it was coming down at a fair rate of knots, usually towards my throat.
Donald was one of the greatest competitors that I played against. He was also, off the field, a champion bloke. At the end of that match, we had a beer together and he asked me to autograph the offending glove. There was a little red mark where the ball had hit it, so I wrote my autograph all over it. Thankfully, he got the joke."
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