Timing, as they say in sport, is everything, and it was about a a year ago that Corbin and Eathan Bosch went through some of their father Tertius' things.
Tertius had passed away in tragic circumstances in 2000, when Corbin was five and Eathan not yet two. The pair knew him only through the memories of others, including their mother Karen-Anne, who held on to a lot of Tertius' playing kit. Among the things the brothers found was a 1992 World Cup shirt. "It was pretty special," Eathan, a cricketer in South Africa's domestic set-up, tells ESPNcricinfo. "And also just to see what the kit looked like back then and what it's like now. I must say I wouldn't be able to play in that kind of kit. It's just so thick and heavy."
At the time, Eathan didn't think he'd ever have reason to put the shirt on, but kept it with him anyway. Two days ago, that changed. He was invited to a hospitality suite at the Wanderers for Corbin's ODI debut and decided on his outfit as he walked out of his front door. "It was a pink day so I thought I was going to wear a pink shirt, but then at the last second as I was leaving I remembered I had the [1992] shirt and I thought, 'let me wear it.' When I got to the stadium, I just put it on," Eathan says. "I just thought it was a special occasion, and what better way to celebrate Corbin's debut than wearing one of my dad's shirts?"
A debut on a special day!
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) December 22, 2024
Corbin Bosch makes his ODI debut for the Proteas today, after receiving his cap from Aiden Markram.#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt #PinkDay #SAvPAK pic.twitter.com/Oeo73cz7Uz
Those who had watched Tertius were now reminded of him when they watched Corbin bowl, consistently hitting speeds of 140-plus kph. He picked up the wicket of centurion Saim Ayub and went on to score a defiant 44-ball 40, batting at No. 8.
Four days on, Corbin will get to do it again, in possibly even more special circumstances. He has been named in South Africa's XI for the Boxing Day Test in Centurion, where Tertius began his first-class career just under 38 years ago.
"It couldn't be more fitting that where he played all of his cricket will be the place where I make my Test debut," an emotional Corbin told reporters at SuperSport Park. "I love this place, the atmosphere is always fantastic, and it's a ground that I'm so well accustomed to, so I couldn't be more happy. It's my home, and it's where he played most of his cricket before going down to Durban, so I cannot be more grateful and thankful to spend such a momentous occasion here."
Tertius rose to prominence as a dental student at the University of Pretoria, and began his domestic career in the summer of 1986-87. He made a name for himself as among the quickest in the country, on par with Allan Donald. Five years later, he was part of South Africa's first ODI World Cup squad and played one match against New Zealand, and shared the new ball in South Africa's first Test post-readmission. HE was only 33 when he died, and his wife Karen-Anne did everything she could to nurture their two sons' love of sport.
"I take my hat off to my mum," Eathan says. "She had two boys that were crazy sports fanatics that just did sport after sport after sport. We owe a lot to her because she would take us to extra lessons, whether it was cricket, swimming, hockey, anything. And the amount of backyard cricket we used to play was absolutely ridiculous. We broke tiles because of the amount of times we would tap the bats on a certain spot. No matter where we went, we always found a place to play some garden cricket."
Corbin schooled at Pretoria Boys alongside Aiden Markram and the pair made South Africa's Under-19 World Cup squad together in 2014. They were among the standout performers of the team's title-winning campaign. Markram was South Africa's leading run-scorer and Bosch the Player of the Match in the final for his 4 for 15. He was also the team's second-highest wicket-taker, behind Kagiso Rabada.
Ray Jennings, the coach of that side, remembers the trio as his "brains trust" at the tournament. He tipped all of them for greater things. "Corbin was one of the senior guys of that side and a really underrated allrounder,' Jennings tells ESPNcricinfo. "He could really hit a ball in the lower order, and has a really good cricket brain. He was also very consistent in his pace. He was one of my brains trust - him, Rabada and Markram - they were my three guys who helped me make the opposition struggle on the field. I'm sad that he wasn't identified sooner."
While Rabada and then Markram got provincial contracts, Corbin was unable to hold down a place in the Northerns team. In 2016, a year after Rabada got his first South Africa cap and a year before Markram got his, Corbin moved to Brisbane to see if he could make it in Australia. He played first-grade cricket for Northern Suburbs Districts and spent time with Andy Bichel and Phil Jaques but wasn't getting as far as he hoped. By November 2017, Corbin was back in South Africa, and had decided he would try his home country again with one notable difference: he was quicker. "After he came back from Australia, he was just determined to always try to bowl nice and fast," Eathan says.
Corbin made his franchise debut that summer and has been in and around the professional set-up ever since, but never with the kind of numbers that screamed "select me." Instead, he found some prominence in the leagues and was a replacement player at Rajasthan Royals in 2022 before signing deals at the CPL and the SA20. All the time, he has bubbled under.
His big break came when he was included in an SA Invitation side to play England Lions earlier this month, and he scored 33 off 45, batting at No. 8, and bowled five overs with a return of 1 for 21. South Africa's Test coach Shukri Conrad was there, specifically to see Corbin, as he grappled with a slew of injured seamers. At that point, the reality of Corbin being in line for an international call-up, drew significantly closer. In double-quick time.
When Ottneil Baartman became the seventh seamer to go down over the summer, Corbin was parachuted into the ODI squad. He was capped by his schoolmate Markram, who recognised that Corbin "had to do it the hard way" and had "waited many years for the opportunity".
"I don't think he ever gave up," Eathan says. "He's someone with a hell of a lot of self-belief. There's obviously times in anyone's career where you don't believe it but he is just someone who just kept working hard and just kept sticking to what he wanted to do. His biggest dream was to play for South Africa, and I don't think he wanted to stop until he did it."
But there was one thing Corbin wanted more than an ODI debut. "The cap I most really wanted out of all the international caps was the Test cap," Corbin said. "Test cricket is something that means the most to me, so I cannot wait to get onto this field in a couple days' time."
By the time Corbin found out he would be in the Boxing Day XI, Karen-Anne and the Boschs' stepdad Brian van Onselen had already gone to their holiday home in the coastal town of Kenton-on-Sea when they got a call to say they should head upcountry instead. "Shukri pulled me aside yesterday and gave me the news that I could tell my parents that they can fly up, so I can ruin the Christmas holiday," Corbin said.
For Karen-Anne, this is the best way her break could be interrupted. "She said she wouldn't miss this moment for the world," Corbin said.
Eathan has continued down to the Eastern Cape, and will "make sure that wherever I am, I've got some sort of stream on or something," but is happy to take the back seat for this one. "I'm really glad I had my moment on Sunday, and it was me and him," Eathan says. "It's only fair that my mom and my stepdad have this moment with Corbin as well."
And somewhere, someone else might be enjoying it too. "We're really proud," Eathan says, "and obviously dad's really proud of him too."