When Kagiso Rabada arrived at St Stithians College in northern Johannesburg, he was a flash left-hander with every shot in the book. "He reminded us a little of Brian Lara," said Wim Jansen, the school's director of cricket. "He was pretty flamboyant when he joined the school in Grade 8."
As a bowler, Rabada was wild. With his willowy frame and liquid slide to the crease, he could always bowl fast, but he was cavalier in his preparation and struggled with no-balls. Jansen said the school's coaches forced him to measure out his run to the centimetre, and before long he was deep into the subtle arts of composing an over. He worked on his core strength and wasn't over-bowled; the school smartly seeing to it that he wasn't pitchforked into the arduous extra regime of club cricket like so many other young fast bowlers. He duly made the Gauteng Under-15 team in his second year at school and played four years of 1st XI cricket, helping make St Stithians one of the most powerful cricketing schools in the land.
While Rabada was still at school, Jansen introduced the idea of a walkway of trees. The concept was borrowed from Wynberg Boys' High in the Western Cape - Jacques Kallis' alma mater - and involves planting young trees alongside a path around the first team cricket oval. Trees are planted for significant achievements - hundreds and five-wicket hauls - and despite taking loads of wickets at school, Rabada matriculated at the end of 2013 without a tree bearing his name.
"We didn't realise it at the time but not having a tree became a bit of an issue for Kagiso," said Jansen. "I remember being woken up [a couple of months later] at about 2am by him phoning from Dubai after he'd taken 6 for 25 in the [U-19] World Cup semi-final against Australia [in 2014]. All he wanted to know was if a tree could be planted in his name."
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