Slow bowlers selected but seamers still rule
CRICKET: Jon Swift
IT IS not beyond the bounds of reason to suggest to the South African cricket selectors that they should take note of the recent goings-on in the camp of their rugby counterparts. For, with the senior tour of one-dayers looming in Pakistan and the A side’s trip to Zimbabwe later this month, we have some interesting choices.
One can only applaud the retention of Kepler Wessels as captain, despite his somewhat conservative approach to limited overs cricket, his legion of detractors and his suspect knees which have aged far quicker than the man who owns them.
Similar applause is merited in the case of Mark Rushmere’s selection as skipper of the A side. One of the national team’s discards, there is much that Rushmere still has to offer the game at top level.
That said though, the decision to drop Peter Kirsten represents a savage slight to the diminutive Border batsman, and he has every reason to evince the sentiment that he is “feeling pissed off” about the decision.
More germane in the long term though — and of perhaps more relevance to South African cricket — is the choice of slow bowlers included in the two sides. Pollock and Wessels were adamant before the tour of England that both Pat Symcox and Tim Shaw would be true challengers for a place in the test side.
This, patently, was not so. The reliance was once again put firmly on the all-seam attack which performed so magnificently at Lord’s and stuttered and misfired throughout the rest of the series.
Let us first examine the slow bowlers in the national squad for Pakistan. Shaw is joined by another left arm bowler in Transvaal’s Clive Eksteen and Natal offspinner Derek Crookes. Eksteen, who has sat it out on the sidelines of international cricket since becoming an early discard, has, unlike Shaw, the ability to produce prodigious turn. Crookes does not have this ability, but is a fine one day player by virtue of his nagging line and length. One could very well argue however that, with his lack of flight and turn in delivery, Crookes remains a debatable investment for the five day game.
Similarly, the selectors have shown faith in Free State’s Nic Boje as a choice in the A side. It all adds up to a fair bit of spin bowling available.
But, if the thrust of this country’s thinking on who gets the nod in the attack when the chips are down is anything to go by, slow bowling will remain an art appreciated by few. To underline this, one only has to look at the seamers who have been named to fill the front end of the touring sides.
Meyrick Pringle of the prodigious swing, earns a recall as Allan Donald sits out the trip to Pakistan to rest his injured foot.
At best, Pringle is devastating. Off form, he is excruciating. He remains, however, a true strike bowler, one capable of taking a side down. South Africa will need this ability with Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram operating at the other end.
Pringle is teamed with the lion-hearted Fanie de Villiers as a one-day paceman of proven worth, but more restrictive than penetrative. This could also be said of Craig Matthews, so much better a bowler at international level than in the provincial milleau.
Also in the side is Western Province all-rounder Eric Simons, back — as the selectors promised before the England tour — in the one-day reckoning.
And then there is Brian McMillan, unquestionably the lynchpin of the game at international level for this country. The harder wickets on the Indian sub-continent will doubtless suit Big Mac and his penchant to bang the ball in.
To underpin all this, there are Adrian Kuiper and Hansie Cronje, neither perhaps frontline bowlers, but better than average for any changeover needed — especially on the Pakistan tracks prepared for their own pace merchants.
In the A side, the selectors have also put some emphasis on seam with Steven Jack given a run alongside Richard Snell and Steve Elworthy. When he concentrates on his job rather than sheer pace, Jack is a fine quick bowler. When he doesn’t virtually anything can happen … and often does. Under Rushmere, his provincial skipper, one hopes that reason prevails over rage.
Snell remains an enigma. A paceman whose swing is often enough to roll a side over at quick march, but still capable of turning into an errant trundler without any seeming reason.
Elworthy is an interesting choice as a back-up. He performed well against the England A side last season — a side which interestingly saw the blossoming of Darren Gough as a bowler of real class.
Add the whole bunch together, and one question needs answering. If we have this amount of seam bowling even without Donald, just where do the slow bowlers fit in?
One would suspect that this answer is something like the spare wheel on a trailer. The authorities insist on there being one even if it is seldom needed.