Fitness test for Donald, New Year recall for Gibbs?

Allan Donald faces yet another fitness test before taking his place in the South African team to play Sri Lanka in the first Castle Lager/MTN Test match starting at Kingsmead on Boxing Day.

Donald has a stomach muscle strain and although being named in the squads for South Africa's last three games - the third Test against New Zealand and the first two one-day internationals against Sri Lanka - he has failed to make any of the starting lineups.

As a result, the selectors have named the same 12-man squad for Kingsmead and the second Test at Newlands as was chosen for the washed out third Test against New Zealand - a squad that includes both Donald and Mfuneko Ngam.

Selection convener Rushdi Magiet said that it was a straight choice between Donald and Ngam. If the former is not fit, the latter will win his second Test cap.

More interestingly, Magiet said the selectors "reserved the right" to add to the squad for the Newlands Test which starts on January 2. This reservation, as Magiet confirmed, applies to Herschelle Gibbs, the opener suspended until January 1 for his part in the match-fixing scandal (Gibbs was suspended for six months for agreeing to underperform in a one-day international in India this year, although he failed to carry out his part of the deal).

Gibbs has been in reasonable, if not completely compelling form in provincial cricket this season, although he scored a magnificent 105 for Western Province against the Highveld Strikers this season. The selectors want him back in the side sooner rather than later, however, because of the lift his presence gives the team, now even more so with the retirement of Jonty Rhodes from Test cricket.

It is, however, by no means a foregone conclusion that Gibbs will be in the second Test side. Boeta Dippenaar, who has opened in Gibbs' absence this summer, is just off a maiden Test century while Neil McKenzie's last four Test innings have been 55, 13 not out, 120 and 7 not out.

The man possibly under most threat from Gibbs, who has always been seen as a middle order player in the long term, could be Daryll Cullinan. Magiet was unwilling to discuss Cullinan, but it is obvious that his outstanding record against Sri Lanka together with his ability to cope with Muttiah Muralitharan ensured his place at Kingsmead. And if he comes off in Durban, there might be no place for Gibbs, not at the moment, anyway.

Before then, though, Donald will have to demonstrate his fitness. Magiet said it was hoped that Donald would be able to play for Free State against the SA under 19 team ahead of the first Test match. If he comes through that one, Ngam might have to wait a little longer for his second cap.

Squad

Shaun Pollock (capt), Gary Kirsten, Boeta Dippenaar, Jacques Kallis, Daryll Cullinan, Neil McKenzie, Mark Boucher, Lance Klusener, Nicky Boje, Makhaya Ntini, Allan Donald, Mfuneko Ngam.