Neil Manthorp in Adelaide Gary Kirsten stared at no one in particular and, as calmly as if he was ordering a club sandwich from room service, told 38 journalists and five television stations that South Africa believed they could win the series. Whats more, he admitted that that may not have been the case four years ago. “We believed we could compete but I think we had a couple of niggling doubts in the back of our minds about actually winning,” he said at the largest multimedia conference yet attended by the team (or at least some of them) on Tuesday. lance Klusener was the only absentee from the senior players. The Australians didnt really know how to take it. Here was Kirsten, identified as the “main man”, making the definitive statement of the tour, but doing it in a “… oh, and no chips with that, thanks” kind of way. No such understatedness for the man who regards Kirsten as public enemy number one. A slightly paranoid Glenn McGrath has been ranting and raving about his modest form against New Zealand last month being a “blip in figures, not form”. He says he will set out to target Kirsten to give his team an early advanatge. “He is their main batsman. Hes the key to their batting. Ill target him. Ive had a bit of success against him in the past,” McGrath said. Both McGrath and Shane Warne have been banging on about Australias “psychological edge” and both, alarmingly, have stated categorically that South Africa have not beaten them for “more than a couple of years”. Obviously last years pair of one-day series dont count for win-lose record purposes in Australia. The truth is, Kirsten is right. No South African squad has ever been calmer or more infused with self belief. And the more Australias players try to rattle their cage, the more they betray their own self doubts. Even Adam Gilchrist, the calm, sensible vice-captain got it embarrassingly wrong before the Test started. “Every time we play against South Africa it is regarded as the world championship,” he said, promisingly. “There is a lot riding on this series but there is probably more pressure on South Africa,” he said. “Were the number one side in the world at the moment and they have to beat us,” he concluded, very stupidly indeed. Actually, a draw would be ample to give South Africa the title with several hundredths of a point to spare. The pressure has, in fact, been extremely obviously on the home side and their attempts to huff and puff their opponents into oblique surrender before a ball is bowled are drawing no public response whatsoever but a goodly supply of mirth and satisfaction privately.
“You never make big statements or bold predictions in this game,” said South African coach Graham Ford before the tour, “because if you do they tend to come back and bite you on the bum.” “Do you enjoy batting with Herschelle Gibbs? Does it allow you to play your natural game?” Kirsten was asked by a different journalist. “What you mean blocking the shit out it?” Kirsten replied to belly laughs all round. What was this? Unbothered by the traditional psychological games the Aussies play so well and now humour? Bloody humour!? The locals were struggling. The last time South Africa played in Adelaide they drew, largely because Mark Waugh was given not out after breaking his stumps evading a Shaun Pollock bouncer. If followers of karma can be believed, then justice will be done. The wheel turns. And even if it hasnt turned full circle yet, it has been worth the entrance already just watching the Australians getting into a lather about South Africas refusal to bring their verbal bucket and spade to the party so far.