'A' team ready to take on locals

The South Africa 'A' team arrived in Barbados Friday night, setting itself the challenge of playing attractively while maintaining the character and image of South African cricket.

'I think our main objective is to go out and play a brand of cricket that people want to come and watch, and to play a brand of cricket that really is South African,' captain Dale Benkenstein told SUNSPORT shortly after the team arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport.

'We don?t want to go out and play like Australians or like West Indians or like anyone.

'We want to go and play the way we play and hopefully, at the end of the tour, have people remember the South African ?A? side that came in 2000 and the way we played.'

Benkenstein acknowledged that his first task would be to knit the players, who had only been together a few days, into a team.

'We want to try and gel together especially here in Barbados over the next ten days and prepare for the two four-day games that are coming up against the West Indies ?A? he said.

The South African 'A' captain identified adjusting to the conditions in the Caribbean as one of the challenges for his young team.

Benkenstein, who played domestic cricket in Barbados for Wanderers during the mid-90s, expects the challenge of playing under conditions which vary throughout the Caribbean to be a learning experience for his team.

'It?s quite difficult to say what conditions are like in the Caribbean because I think it changes from one island to the next, so we?re going to have to try to adapt as quickly as we can.

'I think that?s the whole purpose of a tour in that you?ve got very young guys that haven?t toured before.

'We have got to learn now, and hopefully it will serve a purpose when they move on to the national team,' the captain said.

Having in the past expressed disappointment at not having a longer run in the South African team and at not making more of his opportunities, Benkenstein, who has played 20 One-Day Internationals for the senior South African side, is not focusing primarily on his personal performance during the Caribbean tour.

'I think the national team is obviously in the back of your mind, but my main objective is to captain this side well and to go and try and win as many games as we can, to get to know the players and to try and bring the best out of them,' he said.

'I think that is really what I am focusing on, I am not focusing on playing for the national team while I?m here.

'If I can concentrate on what I?m doing here and play well for the 'A' team, those results will end up speaking for themselves for the national side.'

The major engagements for the South Africans will be two four day 'Test' matches in St. Vincent and Guyana as well as three One- Dayers in Jamaica, all against the West Indies A team.

While in Barbados, they will play a four-day match against Barbados from August 22 to 25 at Windward, and a One-Day match at Kensington Oval on August 27.

The 'A' team has much to live up to after United Cricket Board managing director Dr. Ali Bacher told the Press before the team?s departure from South Africa that it was the most exciting South Africa 'A' team ever to represent the country.

The 26-year-old captain, who also leads Natal in first-class cricket in South Africa, is determined to maintain the high standard of South African cricket and is in no way intimidated by the high expectations.

'There is nothing better than to have a very high standard and what we want to do is make sure we keep that standard up. That?s what we?re going to be trying to do in the next six weeks,' he said.