One of the South African team’s two minibuses had its tyres slashed in Perth on Friday after day one of the first test between South Africa and Australia. The minibus was parked almost directly outside the team change rooms, leaving half the South African squad stranded and having to walk back to their hotel.
According to the Supersport website the minibus was not marked as a South African team vehicle but could have been easily identified by the items of official clothing inside.
Supersport reports that none of the South African team expressed ”the slightest interest” in registering an official complaint or even reporting the incident.
The walk back to the hotel was fortunately only a short, 15 minute stroll.
The bigger players and those who had the heaviest workload during the first day of the test took the first minibus, while some other players, including all of the management team and reserve players started the walk. A jovial Shaun Pollock also apparently joined the walking party.
Supersport reported the Proteas media liaison man Moabi Litheko as saying ”It’s quite amusing, really”.
The South Africans dominated day one of the first test, exposing cracks in a weak Australian middle order — just as skipper Graeme Smith had predicted.
The Australian middle order all but collapsed in the face of the Protea’s powerful pace attack.