Jacques Kallis will lead the South African one-day international squad for the remaining three one-day internationals against England after captain Graeme Smith was ruled out with an elbow injury.
”It says a lot for Graeme the man and his dogged determination and courage that he has continued playing in spite of being in constant pain,” commented coach Mickey Arthur. ”In all honesty he probably shouldn’t have played after the series-winning Edgbaston Test match.
”We were hoping that we would get through the first few ODIs in a strong position and then possibly leave Graeme out of the last couple, but he has now reached the point of no return. He can’t grip the bat with his right hand at the moment.”
Typically, Smith still took part in Thursday’s fielding drill at the Brit Oval, taking some left-handed catches.
Earlier in the day he had been examined by a London specialist, and the South African team also got advice from its own panel of medical specialists in Johannesburg.
He will start immediate rehabilitation under physiotherapist Shane Jabaar with the realistic aim of playing in the ODI series against Kenya at the end of October and against Bangladesh in early November.
Kallis said he was looking forward to the captaincy. ”It is something I enjoy although it is not always easy when coupled with the dual responsibility of being an all-rounder. I have done it before at both ODI and Test match level and will be up for the challenge.
”We have come back previously from being 2-0 down in a series [against Pakistan] and going on to win 3-2, and that is what we will be aiming to achieve again.”
He described the Nottingham defeat as ”unacceptable”.
”It was way below the standard we set for ourselves. Unfortunately these things do happen in cricket as we saw in India a few months ago when we bowled India out in 20 overs in a Test match.” — Sapa