Gavin Lane is remembered by many as one of the backbones of Orlando Pirates' squad that conquered Africa in 1995. He says he's impressed with Moeneeb Josephs' passion on the field. "He always looks to me like an old Bruce Grobbelaar type of player.
When I sit with my wife and watch Pirates, I always tell her, 'I like that guy because he's funny. He's also moaning and shouting at defenders and he wants to win.'"
Stability Unit, let's talk about your experiences with muti in football.
I can talk about that all day because there are a lot of stories about muti, ha, ha, ha. I always said as long as they are not going to start cutting me or doing funny things, I'll take the muti. I don't mind if I must say something or they rub stuff on me or throw things on me.
At Orlando Pirates, there's this ritual we used to do that we called 'See me now, see me no more'. For example, if we were playing Kaizer Chiefs, you close the one eye and say, "Don't let Chiefs see and score a goal." They you open your eye and say, "Let Pirates see and score a goal." Then they'd rub stuff on your eyebrows and your head and you had to jump over some smoke.
It's a black tradition and I went ahead with the system. When I was at AmaZulu, I even had to wash in sheep's blood the one time because we were going through a bad patch. I wasn't feeling so good afterwards, but you had to do it, ha, ha, ha.
When I was assistant coach to Ramadhan Nsanzurwino he believed in muti very strongly, hey. I know some players weren't happy. I remember Etienne Nsunda refused to partake in the muti rituals and then he never scored in four games! We said, "Etienne, let's just rub something on your knees and boots." After that he scored two goals and we told him, "Hey, you've got to use muti now."
Who was your funniest coach?
The funniest was Viktor Bondarenko at Moroka Swallows because there was a problem with his English. He called me 'Gava', so he told me the one day, "Gava, Gava, you see Pollen (Ndlanya)? You're like dog! You're like dog!" I was trying to think, "What the hell is he trying to say?" Eventually one of the guys came out and said 'Bondas' meant that I must mark Pollen tightly, like when you walk a dog on a leash. That I must put a leash around Pollen's neck and wherever he goes, I must be there.
Travelling to other African countries must have been a nightmare!
Obviously some of the big problems were your accommodation and your flight to get there. I remember once we were flying to Nigeria I think and had to go via Cameroon. We waited and sat in the airport there for hours. It was a funny dodgy little airport.
There's nowhere to sit properly...only benches. It was midnight, very cold. When we got to Nigeria, they said they'd lost all our bags. We had to wait there and then they took us to the hotel in a bus with no windows. I think we got to bed at 02h00. I was still sharing a room with Edward Motale and at 03h30 they were banging on our door, waking us up. They wanted to bring us toilet paper, but we had toilet paper, ha, ha, ha! It was ridiculous.
The one time we went to Uganda. We walked into this hotel and it was like a five-star hotel, with a swimming pool, a casino, a bar area... a beautiful place! When you got into your room and looked outside, it was just shacks outside! It was like two different worlds. You were looking inside and you've got this beautiful place here, where people were swimming and drinking cocktails, and you look outside out of your bedroom window and you've got shacks and people selling stuff on the street!
Crazy stuff, man!
We travelled together, especially the team that won the Champions League in 1995. We went to play the final against ASEC Mimosas and thank goodness Irvin Khoza was with us because, ey, they put us in this place... there were prostitutes everywhere and Irvin said, "No, no, no, let's get out." We then got hold of the South African Embassy there in Abidjan and they looked after us. But, like I said, if Khoza wasn't with us, there would have been trouble there where we stayed. When we pulled out of the airport, they couldn't say 'Pirates'. They were banging on our bus and saying, "Hey, Pilates 0, Mimosas 4!"
The bus had no windows, ha, ha, ha. I mean, when Clive Barker coached Bafana Bafana, we went to Congo and they had those AK47s. They wouldn't let Clive onto the field for training. But it was a nice experience and I can tell my kids, my family and my friends what it was like.
What's the funniest thing an opposition player has said to you during a game?
There've been a lot of swear words, believe me, because I marked quite a few big boys. Marks Maponyane and I had an argument the one day. Mark Batchelor and I had shared a room together and we'd get into each other on the field. He'd say, "You knew my ankle was sore, why are you kicking it?" We had a lot of fun.
I believe what happens on the field when you're playing stays on the field. After the match you shake hands and you go and have a beer with the guy. I don't believe there should be grudges. Some guys might swear at you, but you've got to understand it and let it go. I'd be lying if I said I remember what they said to me, because I said worse things to them, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha, sure!
Raphael Chukwu...what a great player and what a nice person off the field, but on the field, you've got to kick him and mark him! Pollen and I got on very, very well, but in the one incident in the newspaper, it was Gavin Lane against Pollen Ndlanya.
They asked me what I thought of him and I said, "He's good in the air, he's quick, this and this." He said, "No, Gavin is fat and he's slow." When I got onto the field, I hit him on the ribs and I said to him, "Listen, my mother says I'm not fat and slow, okay?" Ha, ha, ha. You intimidate a player when you're a defender at times, you know.
I remember when Mark Fish first played for Jomo Cosmos, he was a striker. He was a young boy and when he came up against me, I jumped on his toes while we were walking and he jumped up and screamed, "Ah, ref, ref!" Later in the match he scored and came running past me, saying, "Hey, ou ballie! Hey, ou ballie!" The next year the two of us were playing centre half together and I said, "Well, I'm not that old now, Fish, you're playing with me, buddy." Ha, ha, ha. All good, china, all good!
Tavern of Legends Fun Facts:
Best player I've ever faced: Too many to mention
Best player I've played with: Shoes Moshoeu
Biggest pay cheque: I can't even remember!
Smallest pay cheque: R1 000
Former team that used the most muti: AmaZulu
Favourite current player: Lucky Lekgwathi
Current occupation: Sales Manager
Former teams: Giant Blackpool, Orlando Pirates, Moroka Swallows, AmaZulu
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