There were no surprises when Cricket South Africa (CSA) announced an unchanged squad for the International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup in the West Indies next month.
Making the announcement on Thursday evening, CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said South Africa was sending a strong, well-balanced and well-prepared team to meet the challenges of Caribbean conditions against the best in the world.
The 15-member squad is the same as that named for the five-match series against Pakistan, which South Africa won 3-1.
Proteas captain Graeme Smith said the team was very confident, and gave the assurance that the players would do their very best to represent South Africa well.
”We’ve come a long way since the last World Cup in 2003,” he said. ”It’s a very happy team, and we are not scared of the challenge. We have been working together for some time now and we all know our roles well.”
Convenor of selectors Haroon Lorgat said it had been easy to select the team. ”We have been working towards this for the last two years, and so the final selection just fell into place,” he said.
Coach Mickey Arthur rejected suggestions that South Africa’s bowling attack was sometimes considered one-dimensional.
”We have the best possible bowling combination, and we’re sure we have enough variation if the situation requires,” he said. ”We have confidence in Robin Peterson [selected as South Africa’s spin bowler], but we also have other options. Justin Kemp has been working hard on his cutters and Graeme Smith has been working on his leg spin, so I’m confident that we can select the right side according to the conditions.”
Arthur said three of the grounds South Africa would play at — in Guyana, Grenada and Barbados — had newly laid pitches and he had received reliable information that they would be more like South African pitches than the traditional slow and low West Indies pitches.
He defended the selection of Roger Telemachus over a player like the Eagles’ Johan van der Wath. ”Roger offers us variation, and he’s very good at bowling at the death,” said Arthur.
”Johan [Van der Wath] opens the bowling for the Eagles, and we have Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock and Andre Nel to open the bowling for South Africa.
He stressed that the time for experimentation was over. ”Conditions on the day will determine the selection,” he said.
World Cup squad: Graeme Smith (captain), Jacques Kallis (vice-captain), Loots Bosman, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Charl Langeveldt, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock, Ashwell Prince and Roger Telemachus — Sapa