A selection of thoughts on selectors

This year, escaping much of the South African winter to visit a few old English haunts and those not so old in Sri Lanka as well, at least helped broaden a few ideas and attitudes: kicking out the fusty and getting up to date with what is becoming that pleasant island in the sun.

Much of the World Cup saw South Africa scraping through match after match, and the almost endless wait for Lance Klusener to arrive and perform his St. George and the Dragon bit on behalf of the nation in need of a new hero or two. Then came June 17, Edgbaston and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, the umpire, looking the other way as Damien Fleming delivered what was later shown to be a no ball: South Africa had won and there was no need for that touch of burlesque as Zulu charged, Allan Donald dropped his bat and . . . shucks it is all over, guys. Did Venkat panic? Or did he miss it? Umpires are bound by the ICC code of conduct and cannot comment on their blunders as they attempt to justify them. So we all had dinner that night and moved on and so did, at a later stage, some selection committees and their policies: Sri Lanka were more daring than most while South Africa stubbed a toe and babbled incoherently and wondered what the fuss was about.

About the only thing Sidath Wettimuny had to remove from his computer screen in his well air-conditioned Colombo office was an offending email and that was achieved by pressing the delete button. At least the urbane convener of Sri Lanka selectors managed to put his accurate, heartfelt, message across before the limited-overs and test series involving the Australian started in Galle weeks later, even if it was through the courtesy of a South African-based journalist working for CricInfo on the internet. South Africa's new national selection panel convener Rushdie Magiet was forced to remove first his right then his left foot after the announcement of the South African side to play a quadrangular tournament in Kenya followed by the release of the two 'fringe' South African squads. While the first was as acceptable as a passable bottle of vintage Paarl red, there was some dubious quality about those included the 'fringe benefits' dribble (or drivel) combinations. The first named, paid nothing for his selection efforts and also a member of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka interim committee of five who, along with the other selectors were aware of their controversial move to remove Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva from the limited-overs squad if only to lighten the team's fielding load in the Aiwa Cup which they won. It was the team's own reverse two-finger salute gesture to the critics.

Cape Town-based Magiet and his panel, guided by whom we have no idea, not only ignored the left-arm bowling talent in the country but overlooked several batsmen of note: Sven Koenig for one, Neil McKenzie for another and roped in 'fringe players' who are on the 'fringe' of the own provincial teams.

We are now awaiting the next selectors announcement, especially when dealing with the South African A side to play Sri Lanka A in November. Perhaps they might stub their big toe a little harder. But then, who knows what goes through a selectors mind and changes in agendas. Welcome to the new season.