South Africa v England: pre-series

[vosser]

"Make him or break him" - Who does this man think he is...

All I can say is that I'm glad Jacques Kallis is such a strong person and great team man. He is well respected by his fellow players, and has had to deal with far greater things than this off the field (Death of his father through cancer) and has proved to come back harder, stronger and more determined than before. I wouldn't be surprised if this comment just fell on deaf ears and Kallis would take it as a challlenge to prove himself on the field, not that he has to. Mark Taylor once said of Kallis, he is a rock, undetterred and resolute, it's as if he is batting in a soundproof bubble, nothing affects the man.

Kallis' career shows the absurdity of this comment, I would definately start to worry though if this was to become a regular occurrence and that weaker players were being provoked

[DarkKnight]

South afrians need gibbs and klusener to make their battling line up look stronger

[vosser]

Unfortunately, I don't quite agree with you DarkKnight on the issue of Klusener and Gibbs. Klusener I feel although still having an input into provincial cricket has incumbents who are equally if not more adept at filling one of the allrounder roles in Test Cricket. I would have to think long and hard about leaving him out of any ODI squad as he is so versatile but unfortunately for me is is not consistent enough to fill a place in SA's test XI. Right now SA are in a time of rebuild and restructure and I feel it is the right time to progress with the likes of Hall, De Bruyn, Thomas and Ontong in the allrounder roles.

Gibbs though is a different situation alltogether. There are currently at least 3 younger contenders (opening bats) in provincial cricket scoring the volume of runs that merits a step up to a higher stage. One of whom has just been selected in AB de Villiers (also a first class keeper), and there is Andrew Puttick (just chosen for SA A v Eng) and Martin v Jaarsveld (SA A v Eng, a top 5 versatile batsmen) also ready to take that next step. Gibbs has always been a player who was transformed into an opener from a middle order explosive bat and there are many of us who think it might be the time to revert to that role and take pressure off himself and free himself up. A South African top six of:

Smith, De Villiers (w/k), Rudolph, Kallis, Gibbs and one of Hall, De Bruyn, Amla, Dippenaar, van Jaarsveld, Ontong and there are others waiting to step up, seems a lot stronger. All this does need Gibbs to start scoring runs in domestic cricket, his season so far can only be classed as a complete shambles (First Class - 226 in 6 at 37.33 and Ltd Overs - 64 in 3 at 21.33).

De Villiers opening the batting leaves the team with more options and greater versatility. It means freeing a space for an extra specialist in place of a keeper batting at 7 or 8. Some might argue that after a long innings in the field, a keeper might find it difficult to open the batting. Despite the fact that he is young (21) and shouldn't affect him that much, you have Gibbs in the side who easily could revert to open the innings if it came down to it.

[Occasional Fan]

England are now playing the second of their warm up games in what is reportedly their shortest ever warm-up period before a test series following a winter break. Yesterday, Duncan Fletcher was unimpressed:

Originally Posted by Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph

Yesterday, in an almost unprecedented move by him, Fletcher gave the squad a roasting after fielding practice for not performing with the intensity demanded by England's 'blink and you'll miss it' warm-up period.

He's not quite Ray Jennings, but he doesn't seem to flinch if a wake up call is required.

Footnote: Angus Fraser, writing in The Independent, says that Fletcher "reminded England of their responsibilities". I've had to do that to folks at work once or twice: it's the same as "giving them a roasting".

[vosser]

From now on I will be posting all my opinions and insights on this series on the england thread of this series so as not to duplicate................see you there