Rudolph disappointed at omission

Haroon Lorgat, the South African chairman of selectors, has admitted that omitting Jacques Rudolph from the 25-man World Cup preparatory squad was a tough call, but one which had to be made. Rudolph has also been left out of the 16-man squad for the emerging players tournament in Australia, but Lorgat explained that Rudolph's batting didn't add much variety the line-up and that it was the competition for places that kept him out.

"Jacques is one of a few batsmen who are similar in style and we felt, with Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers, we had enough players competing for top-order places", he told SuperCricket. "We didn't want to go beyond 25 names, 10 more have to fall off anyway before the World Cup, and we also wanted to introduce some different types of batsmen. It's fair to say that Jacques is the type of batsman who needs to play in the top three."

Since making his ODI debut in 2003, Rudolph has had a decent career in his 45 matches so far, averaging nearly 36. However, his last 20 innings have produced only two half-centuries and that could have led to his undoing. Lorgat reassured that Rudolph is in the scheme of things as far as the Tests are concerned, saying that his style is better suited to the longer version of the game. His last significant innings was the 102 at Perth against Australia earlier this year which helped his side bat out the last day and avert a 3-0 whitewash.

Lorgat also defended his decision to leave out Rudolph from the emerging players' tournament as it comprises mainly of limited-overs games. "I am reluctant to box players in one form of the game, but the reality is we feel his style of play will favour him more in the Test arena and at the moment we are looking to just carry him through there," Lorgat said. "We believe it will have more value using other names in the emerging players' tournament, Jacques won't really benefit from that one-day circus. We know what he offers and it won't add to our body of knowledge for him to play there."

Rudolph, though, was understandably disappointed at missing out, despite once scoring a 150 against a full strength Australian side in a World Cup warm-up match. He also denied that a back injury kept him out of the upcoming tournament in Australia.

"I'm obviously extremely disappointed and my omission was certainly unexpected," Rudolph told SuperCricket. "Last year in August I was the South Africa A captain and I thought I performed well. No one has told me that they're just considering me as a Test player now. I know what I'm capable of - I scored 150 against a full-strength Australian team in a one-day match - so to just be regarded as a Test player would be very disappointing."