From: acooper@nuustak.csir.co.za (Antony Cooper)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Re: SA team observations
Date: 12 Nov 92 21:30:59 GMT
Article-I.D.: nuustak.acooper.721588657
Organization: CSIR, South AFrica
NNTP-Posting-Host: nuustak.csir.co.za

Thus spake barnard@ford.ee.up.ac.za (Etienne Barnard):

>sidi@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Sadiq Yusuf) writes:

>>	And can someone comment on the selection of Omar Henry ?? I know
>>he's been doing great in the Castle Cup (or decently, anyhow), but I didnt
>>think he had any chance of making the team here ! I mean, is Kingsmead
>>expected to take turn ??? Considering it was the home ground of Van Der
>>Bijl and Procter (and Le roux?) when it was supposedly really fast, the
>>spinner was the last thing I expected. Has the ground changed character ??

>The best explanation I can find for the South African team selection
>is "age before beauty". Half the top order played their best
>cricket the best part of ten years ago; the last time Henry performed
>consistently for more than three consecutive matches was ... wait, has
>he ever?

Actually, Omar Henry has had a good run this season. He took 6 wickets
in an innings at Kingsmead, and he saved the OFS with his bat last
weekend (until the rain saved them!). Maybe Kingsmead has changed a bit?

However, I have to agree that the side is rather old! We might find that
the rigors of this season might see one or two of them dropping out of
the SA side through fatigue-induced lack of form!

>I know of only one South African batsman younger than 30 with arguable
>international class; yet he was unceremoniously dumped despite a more
>consistent run of success than any batsman in the team (including top
>scores in both innings' for the President's XI). [OK, make that one
>batsman besides Hudson.]

I agree. Hansie Croje is the form batsman at the moment.

>In all, one has to say that the choice of this weak team bodes ill for
>the future -- no top-order batsman younger than 30 with a first-class
>average above 35, an opening bowler (Schultz) who has captured 5
>wickets in an innings only twice in his career, a spinner who surely
>does not have a sub-30 bowling average over the past five years
>(against the world's worst players of spin) ...

There can be no doubt that they decided to gamble a bit! The motivation
is that the SA side will play attacking cricket, hence the selection of
players such as Schultz (for whom bowling on the wickets means not being
called for bowling wides!) and Rhodes.

>People like Barlow have been quite critical of the lack of foresight
>in choosing this mixture of geriatrics and unproven "talent"; the
>South African Cricket Board has done most other things well, and I
>hope that some long-term thinking about team choices will soon enter
>into their policy-making.

Actually, I think that the bigger problem lies with the team management.
They handled team selections rather poorly at the World Cup (omitting
Omar Henry from the one game played on a spinner's wicket, for example!),
and I blame the loss in the 5-day test against the West Indies on the
team management - the game was lost on the rest day, when the momentum
was lost.

>As for bowlers such as Matthews and De Villiers (who have probably
>been the most successful non-West-Indian bowlers in the local
>competitions so far) -- there is a feeling that pacier bowlers of
>lower quality (Jack, Schultz, Bosch) will be more successful against the
>Indian side. Whether this is true, only the future will tell.

Unfortunately, Matthews is one of those players who is so reliable and
quietly gets on with the job, that he will always be overlooked - the
same applies to De Villiers when he is not injured! I would guess that 
Matthews would reproduce his provincial form at a national level, and
that De Villiers might even do better at a national level, where the
batsmen are good enough to go out to him!

Cheers
Antony

--
Antony Cooper                                        | Voice: +27 12 841 4121
acooper@nuustak.csir.co.za                           | Fax:   +27 12 841 4109
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