South African prospects

[Maranello]

Interesting comment below from cricinfo on the state of South African cricket in light of their performance against India. Maybe a trifle too harsh, considering its only based on one Test, but it does highlight the South Africans' focus on avoiding defeat at all costs.

Not sure what the future holds for South African cricket - the current performance, on the back of the weak outings in SL and NZL, does not point to a rosy picture. They do not seem to have the firepower to get 20 wickets on decent batting tracks against good batsmen, so will struggle to win many Tests away from home. What is more worrying is that, unlike, for instance West Indies, there is no group of young seam bowlers waiting in the wings. There is Pollock...and there is Ntini.. and then there diddly squat! Good batsmen know this - they only have to see off the new ball pair, and then can tuck in with relish.

On the batting front, they do have the ageing Kallis, supported by Smith, Gibbs and the new start Hall, alongwith Rudolph. However, again there does not seem to be a great pipeline of talent coming through, considering this is the country that recently (mid-90s onwards) produced Cullinan, Kirsten, Cronje, Kallis and Gibbs.

No magic solution in sight
Neil Manthorp - November 23, 2004

A dozen years ago South Africa were a team with few stars, and only one man who knew anything at all about playing Test cricket. That man was Kepler Wessels, and he had faith in the old-fashioned adage that a captain's first and foremost duty to his country and his team was to make sure they could not lose before they even contemplated victory

Wessels believed that if he could make his inexperienced South African team hard to beat then they might have a chance of actually winning matches. But first, he believed, they needed to inherit some of the bloody-mindedness he had learned while playing for Australia, maximise whatever talent they did possess, and then learn to play for each other.
Fast forward 12 years ... and where are we now? Exactly the same place. Almost. Shaun Pollock and Jacques Kallis have played 86 and 81 Tests each, but the team, collectively, has lost so much. The attributes of toughness and determination are one thing, but there is the talent to think of, too. Particularly the bowling talent.

In the early and mid-1990s, South Africa fielded a quartet of fast bowlers all capable of taking wickets, and there was no respite for the batsmen. Behind Allan Donald was a queue of good men just waiting to take their turn - Brett Schultz, Craig Matthews, Brian McMillan, Fanie de Villiers, Richard Snell and then, in 1996, Pollock himself. But now there are just two - and Pollock is overworked and suffering because the batsmen are content merely to keep him out, while Makhaya Ntini is struggling through over-exertion and an impatience to break through.

The batsmen are missing Gary Kirsten as badly as a ten-year-old misses his mum on the first day at boarding school, and they are subdued by the knowledge that, without a huge first-innings total, they have no chance of victory and are probably doomed to defeat.

So what you see today is what you get. South Africa aren't suddenly going to find the magic solution and bounce back to being the second-best team in the world, as they were for three or four years.

If they have looked like underdogs scrapping for a bone and hanging onto it for dear life over the first four days at Kanpur, it's because they are. And you can expect more of the same at Kolkata.

Neil Manthorp is a sports journalist based in South Africa and is a partner in the MWP Sports Agency.

[flanflinger]

Originally Posted by Maranello

On the batting front, they do have the ageing Kallis, .

Wouldn't say that Kallis was ageing though....he's only just 28!!

But I would agree with CricInfo's assement of their bowling. Pollock is definatly getting less effective, and Ntini is not of the quality of Donald, De Villiers etc..

I would say that the plan has to be see out the new ball and capitalise. Score as many as possible off the back-up bowlers.

[NZBeth]

Definitely I think the team need to do something about their bowling. Ntini is not consistent and Pollock can't be relied upon every time. Their batting has potential but with Gibbs out they really are cutting it a bit thin in their attack as well. Not sure they'll make it back in the top 3 teams for a while.

[Zainub]

Ntini is a good bowler where conditions suit his type of bowling, his record at home is worth having a look at it, but in 5 tests in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka so far he's been very ordinary, and Robin Jackman made an intresting but important point in the commentary box yesterday about his bowling, he was of the opinion that Ntini is bowler who has this length he likes to bowl at, and he finds it difficult to suddenly change that when he is playing in different conditions.

Speaking of SA fast bowlers, I really liked the look of (not literally obviously) of Andre Nel, he got a handful of wickets when he came to Pakistan last year and he was getting Lara out quite a few times also last year when West Indies toured SA.I wonder why is he not in the team right now, is he injuried?

[Kiwi_Luvs_Cricket]

I think Andre Nel is quite a good bowler. I am quite surprised that he is not in the team.
If I remember right, I saw him in the team when they last toured New Zealand.

[vosser]

Unfortunately this will be a long discussed subject and something that will cause a lot of heartache to South African and cricket supporters worldwide as it can only be good for cricket if SA were able to compete up with the likes of Australia and it pains me to say so, England. One of the big problems South Africa has had is to find a strike bowler with international prospects to fill squad places regularly over a succession of tours and competitions. Many have been tried but failed either with consistency of form, persistent injury struggles or temperament issues (Hayward, Nel, Terbrugge, Ngam, Telemachus, Willoughby, Langeveld and Kruger). Currently on tour we have what can only be looked at as a bits and pieces attack not looking to take 20 wickets in a game but to minimise the effect of the fast scoring Indian batsmen. I am quite sure that come the summers home series against england the make-up of the attack will be quite different.

The attack at present (Pollock, Ntini, Hall, De Bruyn and Petersen) doesn't frighten many world batting line-ups, but with the inclusion of the likes of Andre Nel, Nantie Hayward, Garnett Kruger you start talking about bowlers who will take wickets on South African wickets especially The Wanderers (JHB), Supersport Park (PTA) and Kingsmead (DBN). Once england arrive Pollock ever steady and Ntini on wickets far more suited to his robust, bustling action will continue to form the world class part of the attack. As first and second change seamers Andrew Hall should retain his place being South Africa's most consistent bowler in domestic cricket and one of the likes of Nel, Hayward, Kruger and Langeveld. Nic Boje will return for Petersen as he will take more wickets and is Petersens equal with the bat. I will be surprised if South Africa play a fully fledged spinner in more than half the games. South Africa will struggle to accomodate as many All rounders in their Test XI (Currently Kallis, Hall, De Bruyn, Pollock and Petersen in the XI and Thomas and Ontong in the XV).

Gibbs will return to open although he is out of form and if the selectors want to be really brave then they might opt for the likes of Andrew Puttick who is scoring loads in the domestic competitions and is definately Test quality. Kallis, V Jaarsveld and Rudolph should occupy the enjine room. Thami Tsolekile needs to step up and cement his spot at no7 which he is able to do with Pollock at 8. 9/10 and 11 reserved for a spinner, Ntini and 1 other specialist seamer, leaving only the number 6 spot to be filled by either a specialist bat (Dippenaar, Amla{debut} etc) or a aggressive allrounder (Hall, De Bruin, Kemp etc).

This all leaves quite a different team setup from the one currently involved in the India tour which couldnt end soon enough.