Pat McDermott : Cricket
South Africa faces the prospect of a Christmas and New Year with the national side away from home for the first time since our readmittance to the world game. It is a bleak prospect, fraught with the realities of television coverage from the sub-continent for the series against Pakistan and early-morning risings for the campaign in Australia.
But then that is a purely selfish viewpoint; for Hansie Cronje and his men the task ahead is much more difficult and involved than resetting the alarm clock and preparing excuses for the boss. Attempting to take on two of the worlds premier cricketing nations on their own territory on a back-to-back basis is a tough task indeed.
It was precisely this type of tour first India and then this country that was just as big a factor in the sacking of Bill Lawry as Aussie captain as was the 4-0 whitewash the stubborn left-handed openers tourists suffered at the hands of the South Africans way back in 1970.
Lawry had the temerity to question the wisdom of joint tours to an Australian Cricket Board that resented criticism of the men they had elevated to national status as much as they did defeat.
And coming off a pounding at the hands of Mark Taylors Australians last season, Cronje and company have less than a month to contemplate just what it is that is being asked of them. There has been little really to run the rule over in the build-up towards this odyssey they embark on with a three-day game in Quetta from October 1-3 as a pipe-opener to the first Test against the Pakistanis in Rawalpindi three days later.
The A v B match played in Bloemfontein this week has done little more than serve as a command performance for Brian McMillan and to show that there is still the spark of competitiveness in the battered frame of the angular Fanie de Villiers.
Having McMillan in form is crucial to any hopes the South Africans may have of coming out of their joint trips with something resembling a reputation. Big Mac plundered 102 before deciding to take a rest in the first innings and then set about the bowling with a will in the second.
De Villiers showed he has lost none of his zest for the game and thankfully he has stayed away from lawn mowers in the off season this year by clean bowling Adam Bacher for an ignominious duck and then having Gary Kirsten caught at slip by Derek Crookes for two, just to give his thoughts on the incumbent South African openers.
It remains to be seen whether the crack from a high-ranking member of the United Cricket Board last season to the effect that this season will find Fanie out remain words he wished he had kept to himself.
There are no weak-kneed sides under Cronje, but Kirstens seeming continued lack of form does pose a very serious problem with Bacher still feeling his way into cricket at the top level and Andrew Hudson a tried but unpredictable alternative.
But the twin tours do provide the chance to blood a squad larger than would be the case at home and in this there can be some cause for thankfulness, opening the way for players like Herschelle Gibbs to come into his own with the bat and Mark Boucher to feel his way into the South African wicketkeeping role for when Dave Richardson finally bows the knee to father time.
It even conceivably allows for someone with the nascent talent of a Boeta Dippenaar to go along and get a feel for just how cut- throat a game the Pakistanis and Australians play.
It will be, one feels, well worth the early mornings and late nights.
Pakistan
October 1-3: Three-day game, Quetta
Oct 6-10: First Test v Pakistan, Rawalpindi
Oct 12-14: Three-day game, Peshawar
Oct 17-21: Second Test, Sheikupuru
Oct 24-25: Thrid Test, Faisalabad
November 2: One-day v Pakistan, Lahore
Nov 3: One-day v West Indies, Lahore
Nov 6: One-day v Sri Lanka, Lahore
Nov 8: One-day series final, Lahore
Australia
Nov 25: ACB Chairmans XI, Perth
Nov 27-30: Western Australia, Perth
December 2: Prime Ministers XI, Canberra
Dec 4: Day-night v Australia, Sydney
Dec 6: Day-night v New Zealand, Adelaide
Dec 9: Day-night v Australia, Melbourne
Dec 11: Day-night v New Zealand, Hobart
Dec 13-16: Tasmania in Hobart
Dec 19-22: Australia A in Brisbane
Dec 26-30: First Test v Australia, Melbourne
January 2-6: Second Test v Austalia, Sydney
Jan 9: Day-night v New Zealand, Brisbane
Jan 11: Day-night v Australia, Brisbane
Jan 13: Bradmans XI in Bowral
Jan 16: Day-night v New Zealand, Perth
Jan 18: Day-night v Australia, Perth
Jan 23: First day-night final, Melbourne
Jan 25: Second day-night final, Sydney
Jan 27: Third day-night final, Sydney
Jan 30 to Feb 2: Third Test, Adelaide