Waca Test war rages on down under

A seasoned Australian commentator, veteran of more than 30 seasons, glanced with whimsy at a South African squad list before the start of the first Test at the Waca on Wednesday. Not just the players, but the whole squad.

‘I thought Australia had a lot in the backroom, but that’s even more,” he said with a smile and a shake of the head.

‘I wonder if they’ll all be able to help.”

His best line was reserved for ‘Performance Coach”, Jeremy Snape. Without a single tinge of malice, he wryly observed: ‘A former England off-spinner — perfectly qualified to do a bit of trauma counselling, at least.”

No South African player had any doubt that the series would be hard work, but if they were not sure just how tough it would be, the first day in Perth would have put their minds to rest. Very hard indeed.

Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, three of the top 10 batsmen in the world, were gone with just 15 runs on the board and yet the Australians still found a way to post 341-9.

Snape’s work as a psychologist — for that is what he is — was successful, at least judging by the positive attitude that was still alive and kicking at the end of the day.

Makhaya Ntini proved that he is still the leader of the attack — if not the gatherer of headlines — but it was spinner Paul Harris who collected the two most significant wickets by persuading Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds to play appalling shots once they had reached their half centuries.

If ‘sledging” is an Australian sporting art form, then the world champions should at least finish this series with a grudging respect for the slow left-armer.

‘I took a lot of abuse out there today, but I gave a little bit back,” he said after the first day.

It may sound repetitive to talk about the effect of playing in front of Australian crowds.

There have been many unaccomplished teams that have been simply outplayed but, in South Africa’s case, their demise has been more about the inability to cope with what has been perceived as an assault by the opposition, the crowd and the media.

In fact, nothing is further from the truth. The opposition may coordinate their assault, but the crowd and the media are just as likely to give their own team ‘a gob full” as they are to the visitors.

Graeme Smith showed the way forward by agreeing before the series to write a column for the tabloids.

In his first one, published on match day, he said he ‘genuinely enjoyed the newspapers over here” and described them as ‘voracious” before encouraging his teammates ‘not to take things personally!”