England coming soon.....

[vosser]

I thought it would be interesting to cast an eye forward to the upcoming series between England and South Africa. England have officially taken over the rating of second placed Test playing nation whilst we have dropped to 6th. (ODI Eng 6th, SA 8th), and there will be a lot riding on a very competitive and interesting summers cricket.

England arrive in the country with a very settled squad, 6 batters (Vaughan, Tresco, Butch, Thorpe, Key and Strauss) vying for 5 spots, Flintoff at 6, GJones at 7, and then 5 bowlers (Giles, Harmison, Hoggard, Anderson and SJones) vying for 4 spots. With a couple of others who will possibly only get a look in in the tour games. Of course some of the above players naturally walk into the starting XI (Vaughan, Harmison etc).

Comparitively SA, at home, having held 2nd spot in the world for the last couple of years look close to a shambles....

What will the outcome be....., where will we be come the end of the series......, and can we send the English home with a series defeat behind them and looking to their future....., Can Ray Jennings and Graems Smith turn our fortunes around?

Hope they can, it's a tough job, but I'm confident.

[Occasional Fan]

Vosser - I can't see RSA winning this one, I'm afraid. There's been a fairly active thread in the England forum for a couple of weeks or so. If you're interested in reading comments which are mostly from England fans, here is a link.

[Rachael]

Vosser: what do you make of this?

[vosser]

Rachael: If anyone has the right to comment Bob Woolmer has and I respect his views highly previously having played under his coaching. Yes the seam attack is weaker and will be relying a lot on Pollock and Ntini (especially with his love of bowling to LHB's). It's also about time that Kallis stood up to be counted in the bowling dept. Other than that, spinners will come into the equation only as stock bowlers and rotational bowlers allowing the quicks a break. What SA have to do is see off the new ball and first spell from Freddie....who I would possibly like to see opening the bowling more often....not always but depending on the situation he might enjoy a new ball at the Wanderers or Supersport Park.

There are some quicks coming through the ranks GKruger, MNgam, DSteyn and a couple of the fringe players MHAyward, ANel, DTerbrugge. Alfonso Thomas, Zander De Bruin and Andrew Hall have been taken to SL.....a lot will depend on what happens there over the next 2 tests.

Captaincy wise it was always risky going with GSmith so young. He is erratic and does not stand down as we have seen in the Klusener fiasco. Unfortunately there isn't anyone stronger in local cricket to take the role. Captaincy wise we do have the people in place but the problem being they just arent up to Test level players. (Dale Benkenstein and Neil McKenzie being 2 great examples). I am excited tho', every nation must rebuild at some stage, we seem to be going through that process now and are being washed onto the rocks in the process but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.

Batting seems strong, Gibbs Smith Kallis tried and tested. Rudolph V JAarsveld Amla Ontong Puttick Dippenaar all fighting for places and scoring loads in Domestic Cricket. All need to establish themselves at the top....where it matters....in test cricket

[Beny]

I've just been re-reading an interview with McGrath and read with interest his oppinion about Smith. He basicly say's that Smith is a **** who's personality is almost as bad as his captincy. Who else could take the job? Pollock?

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by vosser

Batting seems strong, Gibbs Smith Kallis tried and tested. Rudolph V JAarsveld Amla Ontong Puttick Dippenaar all fighting for places and scoring loads in Domestic Cricket. All need to establish themselves at the top....where it matters....in test cricket

Very good point vosser, and as true as it gets.

Ern

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Beny

I've just been re-reading an interview with McGrath and read with interest his oppinion about Smith. He basicly say's that Smith is a **** who's personality is almost as bad as his captincy. Who else could take the job? Pollock?

No no Beny, they need to be looking to the future, Pollock is of the old school, time to move on.

When I first saw Smith bat, I would have thought he would have soon been no 1 in the world, 2what happened"?

Ern

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by Beny

I've just been re-reading an interview with McGrath and read with interest his oppinion about Smith. He basicly say's that Smith is a **** who's personality is almost as bad as his captincy. Who else could take the job? Pollock?

LOL - the guy doesn't seem to be able to win friends or admirers ANYWHERE. Give him time though: he's basically a kid in a man's game.. and doing a tough job for a team that's not going through the best of times.

The biggest problem for the SA management is presumably that they ain't sure that any of the others are credible long term (say 5 year+) options as players: Gibbs is in a trough of form.. Rudolph is the most promising of his generation but hasn't really been delivering... Boucher's just gone.. Pollock's not going to manage too many more years as top dog.... Kallis presumably has enough on his plate already being the sole batting giant AND the 3rd best bowler.

I'm not familiar enough with the personalities to say which guys have "captaincy material" written all over them.. but it's hard to believe that a country that could produce one of the truly great Test captains in Cronje could end up with no one credible so few years later.

[flanflinger]

Originally Posted by Rachael

. Give him time though: he's basically a kid in a man's game..
.

Very good batsman but mentally not quite mature enough. Fleming absoloutly destroyed hin with a barrage of insults, and lets not forget his crying like a baby to the press, after the Aussies tore into him.

Vaughanie is very astute and will know this, so expect Flintoff at slip to be given liscence to tell Graeme a few home truths.

[vosser]

There seems to be an overwhelming feel of unsurity and indecisiveness when Smith steps up to the plate let alone the fact that his temperament and emotional state always seem to get the better of the situations he puts himself into. Despite all the question marks about his captaincy, what has happened to his batting, is the pressure of captaincy and player management causing a problem here or is he just in a run of very average form.

Lets take a quick look at the six regional teams playing today in South African Domestic Competition. I think that we can ask some interesting questions and come to some interesting conclusions looking at the leadership in these teams.

Kwazulu Natal Dolphins - Lance Klusener (c), 33yrs
Northerns Titans - Darryl Cullinan (c), 37yrs
Free State Eagles - Nic Boje (c), 31yrs
WP Boland - Ashwell Prince (c), 27yrs
Gauteng Lions - HD Ackerman (c), 31yrs
Eastern Cape Warriors - Pieter Strydom (c), 35yrs

As you see all but one of these players are already over the age of 30, well past what most would percieve as time to take on a national captaincy role. It seems as far as Lance Klusener goes he will only play again if Graeme Smith was out of the equation. Ashwell Prince who plays for the province Smith plays for is not scoring near enough runs to even be pushing for a spot. Looking through the team lists, there seems to be a drought of natural leadership coming through the ranks. On tour to India at present no one really stands out either.

It may be a case that along the way we may have to force the hand as things are seeming decidedly ropy under Smith and look to another untried incumbent. Maybe Andrew Puttick from WPBol, who certainly will factor by sheer volume of runs, who knows.

India will expose a lot of shortcomings and then on to England, rocky ground lies ahead for whoever leads the ship. While England sail in assured under the knowledge that
Michael Vaughan is as steady as they come, ruthless, aggressive and progressive.