Clive Rice was born on 23 July 1949 in Johannesburg. His education started at St. Johns College and from there to Damelin College in Johannesburg and later the University of Natal.

Clive started playing cricket for the Transvaal Nuffield XI in 1967 and eventually showed glimpses of a fine all–rounder, which earned him promotion to the Transvaal B team in the 1969/70 season. In the 1970/71 season was promoted to the Transvaal A team and earned a call to the Springbok cricket team to tour Australia. However, the tour was cancelled as the International Cricket Council (ICC) banned SA due to its racial policies in sports. In the 1971/72 season Rice captained Natal. Nottinghamshire County Club in England attracted him from 1975 – 1987. Under his captaincy the side won the double championship in 1981. Rice was also captain of Transvaal for the 1981/82 season, under his leadership Transvaal won Castle Cup five times, the Nissan Shield five times and the Benson and Hedges Series three times. In 1988/89 season Rice captained Scotland. When South Africa was re-admitted by ICC in 1991, Rice captained the side, which played against India.

In 1992 Rice was not selected to compete in the World Cricket Cup in Australia and New Zealand and age was cited as the reason for his omission. Cricket analysts believed that the selectors did not want to embarrass him by stating that he had passed his time and that would have been an insult to one of South African greatest cricketers. Instead he was appointed as a commentator for Channel 9 to cover the same event, a befitting honour to his legendary status. Rice was appointed Director of the Plascon Cricket Academy and also formed the Academy of Rand Afrikaans University for the development of skilled youngsters in 1995. The very same year he was appointed as a National Cricket Selector and the following year he captained South Africa to masters cricket in Bombay.

In a career, spanning almost four decades, Rice won the South African cricket Annual Cricketer of the year in 1971, 1985, 1986 and 1989. A befitting honour was bestowed on him in 1985, when he received the State Presidents Award for Sport. Rice currently lives in Johannesburg and is married with two children.

References

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