Bafana Bafana host Burundi at the Free State stadium on Saturday knowing their fans will not be satisfied with anything other than a convincing victory.
Coach Shakes Mashaba is in charge for his second qualifying game for the 2004 African Cup of Nations in Tunisia and he knows that his team needs to turn on the style after a dour, goalless draw in Côte d’Ivoire. That away point may prove invaluable in the long run, but South Africa’s fans are notoriously fickle — and they will expect loads of goals in Bloemfontein.
The Burundians — known as the Sparrows — have not qualified for the Nations Cup in four attempts, though soccer is probably not top of the list of priorities for this war-torn Central African country.
Mashaba has reinforced the squad that won him the Council of Southern African Football Association (Cosafa) Cup recently with a number of overseas-based players.
Making a return to the team is Thabang Molefe — who did well in the first leg of the Cosafa Cup final by containing Essau Kanyenda — and Russia-based Jacob Lekgetho to bolster the defence. In midfield, Sibusiso Zuma and Delron Buckley will give Bafana Bafana the width they need with potentially devastating crosses to the strikers.
In front Mashaba will rely on local boys Patrick Mayo, Jimmy Kauleza, Lebohang Kukame and Hareaipha Marumo to score after the withdrawal of veteran Shaun Bartlett. Hoping to make his first debut for Bafana Bafana will be Dynamos midfielder Phumlani Dindiza.
Burundi are a closed book to the South Africans, with the only player known being goalkeeper Aime Kitenge, who plays for promoted premier league side Dynamos.
The only time any South African team has played Burundi was in 1995, in an Olympic qualifier. The South African under-23s, coached by Mich D’avray, drew 1-1 in the first leg at home before going down 1-4 in the second leg in Burundi.
A number of players in that Burundian under-23 squad will have graduated to the senior team. The Burundians are believed to have been in camp in Madagascar and have been able to get information on the Bafana Bafana team from Kitenge.
The Sparrows are expected to bring a mixture of youth and experience with both home- and foreign-based players. Alphose Gakera, Michel Minko, Opango Ramazani and lethal striker Juna Mosi will be players for Bafana to keep a close eye on.
A lack of information about the Burundians was not the only problem Mashaba encountered in preparation for the game. That tired old chestnut, the country-versus-club row, unfolded again last week. Lucas Radebe was given a tongue-lashing by the coach, but the captain came home to satisfy the South African Football Association with his explanation.
Mashaba was not so easily mollified. ”We must make the worst the best in the absence of the best,” is his adage on the long-running stand-off with clubs. \
} Proteas’ prongs can last the pace
‘ Peter Robinson
^ At some point last Sunday, as Bangladesh were fiddling through their 50 overs, Yogi Ferreira started to talk about ”a four-man prong attack”. This is a variation on the more common ”four-paced prong attack” that enjoyed currency last summer with some Australian commentators, but I suppose against opposition such as Bangladesh either would do.
Then again, with two Test matches against the hapless Bangladeshis looming, getting their prongs in a row is probably the easiest of the tasks facing the national selectors. In any sort of wider context South Africa would be able to field a respectable prong attack, even if Allan Donald has retired from Test cricket, Mfuneko Ngam is injured again and two of the contenders, Alan Dawson and Steve Elworthy, are into their 30s.
Makhaya Ntini, for instance, has already shown that there’s a bit more prong about him on the quicker South African wickets than was the case in both Morocco and Sri Lanka. Even so, South Africa aren’t so blessed with prongs as they were, say, three years ago, but Bangladesh aren’t the team to show up these limitations.
What will be concentrating the minds of Omar Henry and his selection panel, however, is the make-up of the South African batting. There are any number of questions to which there are no ready answers.
For example, should Gary Kirsten, who scored a provincial hundred last weekend, keep his Test place, with Graeme Smith going in at three and Jacques Kallis at four? This is how South Africa played it in the last Test against Australia last summer and in this sense, everyone who played at Kingsmead is the man in possession. Neil McKenzie was at five and Ashwell Prince at six.
But what do South Africa want to achieve in the Bangladesh Tests? Henry says that at least one eye has to be kept on next year’s five-Test tour of England. Which is all very well as a principle, but doesn’t really tell us much about the more immediate future.
If the selectors opt for young (or old) blood, this could entail someone like McKenzie or Prince having to miss an opportunity to make a compelling argument for himself. At the same time, Martin van Jaarsveld is the man in form while Daryll Cullinan, even on a bad day, could well take a double-century off Bangladesh standing on his head.
So what would the Australians do in similar circumstances? The answer to that one seems pretty clear. They’d pick their best damn team, because their best players would see opposition such as Bangladesh as a chance to pick up a point or two for their Test averages.
Which, I would argue, is how South Africa should be thinking. As they showed last summer, Australia have a bit of prong about them. We need not follow them slavishly, but we should be following the logic of their arguments.
” Hard luck on Herschelle Gibbs on missing out on a fourth century and a world one-day record as South Africa duly slaughtered Bangladesh 3-0 in the one-day internationals, but there’s been far too much moaning about the leg side wide that denied Gibbs his century. It’s a perfectly legitimate ploy to bowl down the leg side if it is felt that the batsman is about to go on the charge. A stumping off a wide remains a stumping.
In any case, the fact that Bang-ladesh are not willing to give away centuries or world records suggests that in time they’ll have the toughness necessary for international cricket.