The Biggest Man In Cricket sits down with former Proteas captain Dean Elgar, talking about legacy, style, and the purest form of the game.
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Type the name Dean Elgar into Google and the automated results will throw up phrases like “gritty” and “Virat Kohli”. You have to dig a little deeper though, to find “Dean Elgar the dad”, “Dean Elgar Leopard Creek”, or even “Dean Elgar Welkom”.
To understand those, you’ll have to watch the latest Biggest Man in Cricket episode below, because all of these versions of Elgar are relevant to the former Proteas Test captain and opening batsman’s remarkable career.
I recently sat down with the diminutive lefty during his English county side Essex’s pre-season tour to Cape Town. We spoke about a journey that began in “Welkom, Circle City with 149 circles and only two robots”.
It’s a career that has taken him to the heights of Test centuries around the world, captaining his country, and playing on some of the game’s most iconic grounds. But what stands out most is the contrast between the cricketer we see on the field and the person he is off it.
“It’s definitely not the way I am off the field. I’m extremely down to earth. I’d like to think I’m misunderstood because of what you see on TV and what you read in the papers. You see a black eye because I got drilled with a ball, but that’s not who I am off the field.
"On the field, I had to find a way. I’m not the biggest guy either, so you’ve got to look at that dude who’s two metres tall and say, 'We are here to dance, boy. I’m not just going to roll over. You’re going to have to work your arse off to get me out'.”
Elgar built his career on being the underdog, and it’s a theme that followed him all the way to the top. Just consider the size of the boots he had to fill. First, replacing Graeme Smith as a Proteas opening batsman, one of the toughest roles in the game. Now, in the twilight of his career, stepping into the shoes of Alastair Cook at Essex after the legendary opener retired with 26,643 First-Class runs.
Elgar acknowledges the magnitude of both tasks but, rather than being daunted, expectation fuelled him. It drove his desire to score runs and to win matches, whether for club or country.
In an era where Test cricket often leans toward faster scoring and shorter innings, he represents something different. A cricketer willing to get stuck in and grind out an oftentimes 'ugly' knock, all in the pursuit of team success.
Take his match-winning 96 against India at the Wanderers. South Africa were 1-0 down in the series, chasing 240 on a difficult pitch on the final day against a world-class attack. It wasn’t pretty, but it was decisive.
“It beats any Test 100," he reflects. "It’s about getting your team over the line, even more so as captain."
And then, in only the way Elgar can, he defines what truly matters in Test cricket …“I don’t care if you can hit a 140-metre six. I don’t care about that. Can you bat for two days? That, for me, is a standout quality in a cricketer. Can you win a Test match single-handedly with the ball? Can you bowl that spell where you take four for nothing and turn a game on its head? That’s my gauge.
"What do you have in the tank when it’s hot in India? Are you going to take the ball and run through a batting line-up? Are you going to block out a Test to secure a draw, knowing you can win the next one? That is how legacy is created.”
Elgar’s legacy in South African cricket is already secure. The question now is: Who is the next Dean Elgar?
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