South Africa once again extended the deadline for Jacques Kallis to prove his fitness for the opening Test against Australia starting on Friday, even though the brilliant all-rounder couldn’t lift a bat during a net session in Perth on Wednesday.
Kallis, who has a torn tendon in his left elbow, has had just 10 minutes of net batting since arriving in Perth and officials had originally given him until Tuesday to prove his fitness.
But on Wednesday, they again refused to rule him out and will now give him until the opening morning of the Test match to determine if he should play.
”We have explored various forms of treatment to get him ready for the Test match,” team physiotherapist Shane Jabaar said in a prepared statement.
”His response has been slow, but we’re still hopeful that he will have a significant enough improvement to allow him to participate in the match. We give him until Friday morning before a decision is taken on whether he will play or not.”
Kallis, a right-hander, was able to send down a few deliveries in the nets, but did not lift a bat.
He has had cortisone injections and said he feels the treatment is working.
”[The injury’s] getting better, so I’m making progress,” he said.
His inclusion or otherwise in the team has become the main focus in the lead-up to a match, despite some controversy over a so-called ”war of words” between the two sides.
Veteran fast-bowler Shaun Pollock said Kallis is important to the team but they will adapt if he is unavailable.
”Obviously it’d be nice if he plays, but as a team you deal with those kinds of things,” Pollock said. ”If he does or doesn’t play, we’ve still got to perform as well as we can. It will be a blow for us, but we need to move on if he doesn’t play.”
The Australians were even more enthusiastic about Kallis’s abilities.
”He’s been in super form over a long period of time now and we’re looking forward to facing the challenge of Jacques,” opener Matthew Hayden said.
”Hopefully he’ll get up for the game. If he doesn’t, though, someone will step in. It’s a very strong South African outfit.”
Hayden said Kallis, currently rated the top Test batsman in the world, is in the same league as West Indian Brian Lara and Indian Sachin Tendulkar when it comes to punishing opposing teams.
”He’s a character that does damage perhaps a little more softly than perhaps those two — but it still hurts you equally as hard,” he said.
He said the lightning-fast Western Australian Cricket Association (Waca) wicket, where the Proteas are playing their first Test, will present the South Africans with their best chance of winning in Australia.
”Certainly from a batting point of view they’ve got a very good attack and a very experienced attack, which has been an in-form attack for a long time as well,” he said.
”I am definitely looking forward to the challenge of playing these guys again. I think they’re probably a better outfit than when I first struck them in 1994.
”They’ve got pretty much all the options covered with perhaps the exception of a spin attack, which could be a bit of a problem for them as we get into the slower venues.”
Hayden said the South African attack of Fanie de Villiers, Allan Donald, Brian McMillan and Craig Matthews through the early Nineties was very good.
”But I rate this one just as highly as that. We are going to have our work cut out for us,” he said. ”You always know you’ve batted well when you score runs here. You have to be leaving the ball well; you have to be making good decisions.
”But equally as well, once you do get in and do the hard work, there’s a lot of opportunity to score.”
Hayden said South Africa have also had the advantage of playing on the Waca wicket in the past week, while the Australians only arrived in Perth on Tuesday following a one-day series in New Zealand.
”They’ve had more cricket here than what we have over the last few days. Obviously that’s a huge strength, just knowing the conditions,” he said. — Sapa-AFP