Cronje's team in Kiwiland: a case of testing the water (13 February 1999)

13 February 1999

Cronje's team in Kiwiland: a case of testing the water

Trevor Chesterfield

CENTURION (South Africa) - One of the problems of naming a side after some fauna or flora object is that it could get either frost-bitten or gunned down by a poacher. In New Zealand, the side they call the Proteas, or plain old Hansie's Boys, could also get a taste of the "shakes" as well.

The Springboks, as some still call the side, have been long put out to pasture.

Only Cronje, is now taking a little more on his shoulders as the team becomes to grips of being without their coach Bob Woolmer. Not that Graham Ford is second best. He had as much to do with Natal's rise to stardom in the mid-1990s as did Malcolm Marshall.

Quiet and preferring to get on with the job of advising, suggesting and examination of skills, Fordie has been on tour before.

He was with the South African A side in Sri Lanka and did a pretty good job of that effort with its botched weather and accommodation fiasco.

As Hansie and Co shape to face the Kiwis (Black caps is such an insipid, yet sinister name, so don't expect this old Kiwi to use it) in the first three one-days, slogs are not quite what it is all about. The five days game, usually over in four these days, is what it is all about and how a team is judged.

Naturally he is as inquisitive about the New Zealand team as the Kiwis are about the South Africans.

It was Steve Rixon, when coach of the New Zealand Academy team touring those parts of South Africa which were not going to be rain affected 18 months ago, who first drew attention to the talents of Craig McMillan, Daniel Vettori, Matthew Bell, Lone Howell and Shayne O'Connor.

"Give us three years and we'll have a good, competitive side," he said. While his time table ins on track, and the side is competitive, it will be perhaps ambitious to suggest New Zealand have the capabilities to blunt the South Africans. The cutting edge of the team, as it has been since the return from isolation, is Allan Donald. With Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and Steve Elworthy as support the Test series can become more entertaining than that against the West Indies.

Perhaps South Africa may have the edge in the pace race and Vettori has disappointed in the past few months as a spinner; but that's the disadvantages of too much one-day variety. It has turned Daniel into a disappointing bowler. A little the way Paul Adams has been.

Spinners, as I know too well from my own playing day, need not turn the ball much. Just enough, with the right bounce to get the batsmen in trouble. Both have gone through a torrid season so far yet give the exposure and opportunity they have age on their side to improve. Both are the youngest Test players capped by their countries and as the enter the early 20s much maturity can be expected from them.

The disappointment about Steve Fleming's injury is that he is the one genuine class batsman in the New Zealand side: multi-talented in strokeplay and with the ability to play the right shots.

We know much is expected of the Chris Cairns-Dion Nash duo at both the slogs and Tests, but the Kiwis, known as developing better mental equipment against visiting teams, also have a genuine pace ace of their own in Simon Doull. It was Matthew Heart who took apart the South African second innings at the Wanderers in the Test the Kiwis won and upset all pre-match predictions. It was Doull, however, who laid the foundation for that victory with some stunning batting.

The big argument since Rixon took overs is whether New Zealand are ready to challenge for a better place on the Test ladder.

It is quite amusing how, after stuffing up Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and now India, the Kiwis are still regarded as paupers among the Test nations. It is time write off that inferiority complex and show the rest of the world we are among the middle group. But the, we have always had the rest of the world telling them how poor they are.

A good series against South Africa will go a long way to establishing such credentials.

Source :: Trevor Chesterfield, Pretoria News