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Clive Edward Butler Rice (23 July 1949 – 28 July 2015) was a South African international cricketer. An all-rounder, Rice ended his First Class cricket career with a batting average of 40.95 and a bowling average of 22.49. He captained
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Nottinghamshire. The club's limited overs team is called th ...
from 1979 to 1987. His career coincided directly with South Africa's sporting isolation, and his international experience was limited to his post-prime days. He played three
One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...
s for
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
following the country's return from sporting isolation. He was controversially left out of the squads for the one-off Test against
West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
and the
1992 Cricket World Cup The 1992 Cricket World Cup (known as the Benson & Hedges World Cup 1992 for sponsorship reasons) was the fifth Cricket World Cup, the premier One Day International cricket tournament for men's national teams, organised by the International Cric ...
. Despite this he is widely regarded as one of the best all-rounders of his generation, alongside Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and his county team-mate
Richard Hadlee Sir Richard John Hadlee (born 3 July 1951) is a New Zealand former cricketer. Hadlee is widely regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders in cricket history, and amongst the very finest fast bowlers. Hadlee was appointed an MBE in the 1 ...
. On 28 July 2015, Rice died in hospital at the age of 66, suffering from a brain tumour.


Early and personal life

Rice was born to Patrick and AngelaSproat, p. 341. on 23 July 1949 in
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
,
Transvaal Province The Province of Transvaal (), commonly referred to as the Transvaal (; ), was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994, when a new constitution subdivided it following the end of apartheid. The name "Transvaal" refers to the province's ...
,
Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa (; , ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day South Africa, Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the British Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Tra ...
. Rice's grandfather Philip Salkeld Syndercombe Bower played cricket for
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
while his brother Richard was selected for Transvaal but was unable to play due to exams. Rice worked for a street-lighting company called Envirolight in Johannesburg and his wife Susan heads a Sports Tour and Bush safari company. The couple have two children.


Career


Domestic career

Rice began his career with Transvaal in 1969 and was called up for South Africa's (ultimately cancelled) tour of
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
in 1971–72. In South African domestic cricket he successfully led the 1980s Transvaal, known as the "Mean Machine", to three Castle Currie Cups and other one-day competition victories. Toward the end of his playing career, he played for and captained Natal. He became the first cricketer to score 5000 runs and to take 500 wickets in
List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the num ...
history


Career in English domestic cricket

Rice played for
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
in the English County Championship in a side that also featured internationals
Richard Hadlee Sir Richard John Hadlee (born 3 July 1951) is a New Zealand former cricketer. Hadlee is widely regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders in cricket history, and amongst the very finest fast bowlers. Hadlee was appointed an MBE in the 1 ...
and Derek Randall. As captain, he led the side to the
County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...
title in both 1981 and 1987, winning the prestigious award of being named a
Wisden cricketer of the year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based "primarily for their influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...
for his exploits in 1981. He later played for
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
.


International cricket

Along with other South African players, excluded from international cricket by the sporting boycott of South Africa due to his country's policy of
apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
, Rice joined the controversial World Series Cricket setup in 1978-79. Rice played three Supertests for the WSC World XI, enjoying three victories. In the first one, against Australian XI, the World XI were 5-53 when Rice came to the wicket, and scored 41, taking the World XI to 6-138 - these runs proved crucial in the team's victory. Against the West Indies XI, Rice made 83 and took three wickets as WSC World XI won by an innings and 44 runs. In his third Supertest, against Australia, Rice took three tickets. During the 1980s, a number of rebel cricket teams visited South Africa to play unofficial "Test" matches. Rice captained the home side for the majority of these fixtures. In 1985-86 an Australian XI toured. The South Africa XI won the 3-match test series 1-0, and the 6-match one-day series 4-2. In the third test, Rice took a hattrack in Australia's second innings. In the 2nd one-day match, Rice scored 91 off 93 balls; in the third he made 78 and took 3-25; in the fourth he scored 44 and took 4-45; in the 6th he made 95. Rice was able to make his debut in official international cricket in 1991, when, aged 42, he played in—and captained—South Africa's first
One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...
, in a match against
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
at Eden Gardens,
Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
. Rice finished with averages of 13 with the bat and 57 with the ball from his three One Day International matches.


Later career

After retirement Rice worked as coach for Nottinghamshire and encouraged Kevin Pietersen to leave South Africa to qualify for
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
.


Opinions about match fixing

In September 2010, Rice claimed in an interview to
Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
that betting syndicates were involved in the deaths of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer and former South African captain Hansie Cronje. Fox Sports quoted Rice as saying: "These mafia betting syndicates do not stop at anything and they do not care who gets in their way." Former Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson had earlier told Fox Sports that match-fixing "might not be about money, it might be about extortion, and all the things that go on".


Illness and death

Rice was diagnosed with a
brain tumour A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign (non-cancero ...
in September 1998 and received treatment in
Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
, Germany. In February 2015, Rice collapsed at his house in
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
and scans at a local hospital found that, as his tumour was located deep down, it could not be removed by a neurosurgeon by invasive surgery. Rice then went to Health Care Global in
Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...
, India and received robotic radiation treatment to have the tumour removed. The surgery was successful and Rice returned home in March 2015. On the morning of 28 July 2015, Rice died from
sepsis Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage of sepsis is followed by suppression of the immune system. Common signs and s ...
in the Morningside hospital in Johannesburg.


References


Sources

* Sproat, I. (1988) ''The Cricketers' Who's Who 1988'', Willow Books: London. .


External links

*
Sunday Times article 3 January 2010
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Clive 1949 births 2015 deaths South African cricketers South Africa One Day International cricketers South African cricket captains KwaZulu-Natal cricketers Nottinghamshire cricketers South African expatriate cricketers in England Nottinghamshire cricket captains Scotland cricketers Gauteng cricketers World Series Cricket players Wisden Cricketers of the Year South African cricket coaches Cricketers from Johannesburg South African people of British descent South African people of Scottish descent Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Alumni of St John's College (Johannesburg) Deaths from sepsis D. H. Robins' XI cricketers T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers