V Roger Prabasarkar : Cricket
Like two over-hyped American heavyweight boxers, South Africa and Pakistan snarled and threatened in all the right places and at all the right times before the current Test series began. Now it is as though someone farted at a particularly tense moment during the pre-fight press conference and both fighters, prompted by a tiny giggle, began to laugh uncontrollably.
The rain and cool weather that claimed the second Test and that threatens even the third Test, starting today (Friday) in Faisalabad, is as likely as snow in Johannesburg in November. The Pakistani players felt like the twilight zone had descended while the South Africans became bit players in a black-humoured tragi- comedy after the covers were removed on day one at Sheikhupura to reveal mass flooding of the pitch.
To cap the absurdity of the week, both teams had to set their alarms for 6am each morning, have breakfast and then set off on the hour-plus, often nerve-racking drive to the ground. Now cricket is an odd game, even the fanatics should concede this. But to drive out to a flooded ground, in pouring rain, in order to allow the umpires to pull their trousers up above their ankles and squelch half way out to the hopelessly flooded square just to officially call the game off each day, stretched everyones’ credulity.
One result of the rain was that the two teams spent more time in each others’ company than they could possibly have expected to. The absurdity of the situation was a common denominator and they had no choice but to laugh together. Inevitably much of the “edge” was removed from the series and the combatants were reminded that they are all made of the same stuff.
The most revealing comment, though, came from Pakistan captain Saeed Anwar who was asked about the series being decided by, effectively, a one-off Test, and the possibility that his country’s remarkable record of only two series defeats on home soil in 28 years could be in jeopardy: “We play so much cricket now that it is impossible to worry about protecting that record,” he said. “Defeats are inevitable.”
There is some truth in what he says, but why on earth would he want to actually say it? South Africa emerged from both the Rawalpindi and Sheikhupura encounters with the psychological upper hand; Anwar and his troops are surely entertaining negative thoughts.
The Pakistan Cricket Board’s recent directive to groundsmen to prepare “result orientated” pitches, if obeyed, will suit South Africa far more than Pakistan in the light of the tourists’ ability to cope with spinners Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq and the threat of the returning Allan Donald. Anwar, too, can only feel threatened by the inclusion of Aamir Sohail in the squad of 13 for the final match while the addition of a fourth seamer, Shahid Nazir, also suggests there may be more grass on the wicket to help the quicks.
While Pakistan will struggle to name a starting line-up on the morning of the match in which they feel fully confident, South Africa’s problem will be how to fit the 13 men they want to play into the 11 available places. The magnificent Donald must return. Dave Richardson, too, is fit again and will reclaim his place from 20- year-old Mark Boucher who, it is hoped, will not be adversely affected by a nervous couple of hours behind the stumps in his terribly brief debut.
Will both spinners be retained? And finally, there is the problem of the number three batting position that must be addressed. Brian McMillan has had a miserable tour so far. And to compound the problem, one gathers that he has been miserable, too. In seven Tests on the subcontinent he has yet to reach 20 with the bat and now averages a shade above six. He also despises bowling in these conditions and is almost reluctant to do so.
No surprise there. Dennis Lillee, the great Australian fast bowler, played one Test in his career at Faisalabad and walked from the ground swearing that he would never play another; he didn’t. McMillan is as much of a “crash-bang” bowler as he is a quiet, accumulating batsman. So he is wasted with the ball and appears to be out of form and, far, far more significantly, palpably without confidence with the bat.
Either McMillan or the fizzy Lance Klusener must be sacrificed for the return of Donald. It is the choice between a brick and a bouncy ball and both have their merits. The gambler, with the series as the prize, will go for Klusener. The conservative choice is McMillan whose career statistics make it easy to say: “He’s too good to keep failing, he’ll come right.”
If McMillan is retained but is sheltered from the number three position, then Andrew Hudson could come into the side in place of Jonty Rhodes and McMillan could bat at six. Perhaps the boldest move would be to simply replace Rhodes, the “extra” batsman, with Donald. That would mean Shaun Pollock, in the form of his life with the bat, coming in at number six and Klusener at seven (and Richardson at eight).
For those who saw the young Natal duo adding 96 scintillating runs for the sixth wicket at Sheikhupura, the prospect of them both being promoted up the batting order should inspire more confidence than doubt.
There is one other option. And it might be the boldest of all. The abundant rainfall has raised the water table so much that, even if all the grass is shaved off the wicket, there will be enough moisture in the surface for seam bowlers to gain lateral movement. The fast bowlers will, therefore, be the ones to do most damage.
Off-spinner Pat Symcox, effective though he has been so far, could be told to step aside. Paul Adams, as much of a strike bowler as any of the fast bowlers in Cronje’s estimation, would be left to bowl spin while supplemented – and this is the gamble – by McMillan who could be slowed down and asked to bowl brisk off-cutters. The big all-rounder’s physique just cannot continue taking the punishment and he would not be the first fast bowling all-rounder to finish his career as an off-cutter, or even off spinner.
Michael John Procter is the best and most successful illustration that the transition can be made. If McMillan is included in this new role, he could still bat at number six provided that Daryll Cullinan can be persuaded to bat at “first drop” – as a one-off measure — or Hudson replaces Rhodes and does the job he once performed in New Zealand with good effect and a score of 63.
There is a tremendous opportunity for South Africa to win. The Pakistan side have been far, far more distracted by the surreality of the last 10 days than Cronje’s team and they have an even greater distraction with the imminent arrival of Sri Lanka and the West Indies for the quadrangular one-day series and the three-Test series against the men from the Caribbean.
The more one thinks about Anwar’s comments and the context in which they were made (two Tests were drawn, after all, not lost … a result was never even close in either encounter) the more one is drawn to the conclusion that he is preparing the way for potential defeat by taking some of the sting out of the tail now. His own position, like all Pakistani captains, is tenuous at the best of times and there is no reason for him to be prepared to take the full brunt of a shocked nation’s hysteria should he lead the cricket team to defeat.
A measure of the size of the pressure, incidentally, can be gleaned from Wasim Akram’s reaction to not being reappointed as captain on his return to the side after nearly a year out with injury: “It’s quite a relief, to be honest.”