Clive Edward Butler Rice (born 23 July 1949) is a former South African international
cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er. An all-rounder, Rice ended his first class cricket career with a
batting averageBatting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
of 40.95 and a
bowling averageBowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
of 22.49.
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 Internationals for South Africa following the country's return from sporting isolation. He was controversially left out of the squads for the one-off Test against the West Indies and the
1992 Cricket World Cup-New Zealand:-Round Robin Stage:Co-hosts New Zealand proved the surprise packet of the tournament, winning their first seven games to finish on top of the table after the round robin. The other hosts, Australia, were one of the pre-tournament favourites but lost their first two matches. They...
.
Early and domestic career
Rice began his career with Transvaal in 1969 and was called up for South Africa's (ultimately cancelled) tour of
AustraliaThe Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
in 1970. In South African domestic cricket he successfully led the 1980s Transvaal, known as the "Mean Machine", to three
Castle Currie CupsThe SuperSport Series is the main domestic first class cricket competition in South Africa, first contested in 1889-90. From 1990-91 it became known as the Castle Cup, and from 1996-97 by its current title...
and other one day competitions victories. Toward the end of his playing career, he played for and captained Natal.
Career in English domestic cricket
Rice played for
NottinghamshireNottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...
in the
English County ChampionshipThe County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
in a side that also featured internationals
Richard HadleeSir Richard John Hadlee, MBE is a former New Zealand cricketer who played provincial cricket for Canterbury, Nottinghamshire and Tasmania. He is the son of Walter Hadlee, and the brother of Dayle and Barry Hadlee. His former wife Karen also played international cricket for New Zealand.Hadlee was...
and
Derek RandallDerek William Randall is an English former cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Nottinghamshire, and Tests and ODIs for England in the late 1970s and early 1980s....
. As captain, he led the side to the
County ChampionshipThe County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
title in both 1981 and 1987, winning the prestigious award of being named a Wisden cricketer of the year for his exploits in 1981. He later played for Scotland.
International cricket
Along with other South African players, excluded from international cricket by the
sporting boycott of South AfricaSouth Africa under apartheid was subjected to a variety of international boycotts, including on sporting contacts. There was some debate about whether the aim of the boycott was to end segregation in sport or to end apartheid altogether.-United Nations:...
due to his country's policy of apartheid, Rice joined the controversial
World Series CricketWorld Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket...
setup.
During the 1980s, a number of
rebel cricket teamsThe South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because South Africa was throughout this period banned from international cricket due to the apartheid regime...
visited South Africa to play unofficial "Test" matches. Rice captained the home side for the majority of these fixtures.
Rice was able to make his debut in official international cricket in 1991, when he played in—and captained—South Africa's first One Day International, in a match against India at
Eden GardensEden Gardens is a cricket ground in Kolkata , India. It is the home of the Bengal cricket team and the Indian Premier League's Kolkata Knight Riders, as well as being a Test and One Day International ground. It is the largest cricket stadium in India by seating capacity...
, Calcutta. Rice finished with averages of 13 with the bat and 57 with the ball from his three One Day International matches.
Later career and personal life
After retirement Rice worked as coach for Nottinghamshire and encouraged
Kevin PietersenKevin Peter Pietersen, MBE is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England and Surrey...
to leave South Africa to qualify for
EnglandThe England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
. He currently works 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.
Match fixing and Spot fixing controversy in Cricket
In early September 2010 Rice claimed in an interview to Fox News that betting syndicates were involved in the deaths of Pakistan coach
Bob WoolmerRobert Andrew Woolmer was an international cricketer, professional cricket coach and also a professional commentator...
and former South African captain
Hansie CronjeWessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje was a South African cricketer and captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s...
.
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 LawsonGeoffrey Francis Lawson, OAM is a former Australian cricketer and the former coach of the Pakistan cricket team....
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”.
External links