Kirsten dropped from South African one-day squad

Gary Kirsten, the man the South Africans like to call "The Banker", has been dropped from the South African squad for the last three Standard Bank one-day internationals against Australia.

The 34-year-old Kirsten, virtually an ever-present in both the South African Test and one-day teams since his debut during the 1993/94 tour of Australia, and Andrew Hall have both been omitted from South Africa's 14-man squad with fast bowler Nantie Hayward returning and KwaZulu-Natal allrounder Jon Kent winning his first call-up.

Kirsten is a veteran of 174 one-day internationals and is South Africa's leading run-scorer with 6 440 runs. In three matches in this series, however, he has totalled only 26. Even, he has fared little worse than Herschelle Gibbs, who was left out for Saturday's match, but who, significantly, is six years younger than Kirsten.

South Africa are 3-0 down in the seven-match series with three games still to play and there is still no clear idea of how the hosts can break the psychological stranglehold imposed on them by Australia.

"The sooner they (Australia) get the hell out of here the better," said South African selector Graeme Pollock, dryly but honestly, at the announcement of the squad.

Speaking in the absence of selection convener Rushdi Magiet, who was in Cape Town, Pollock said he believed the bulk of this squad would form the core of South Africa's World Cup party next year.

"We've had a chat with Gary Kirsten and there's no question that he's out of the reckoning for the World Cup," said Pollock while similar sentiments were expressed by his nephew, South African captain Shaun Pollock.

"By his own admission he's not playing as well as he'd like to," said Pollock Junior.

Pollock Senior said he thought South Africa had the nucleus of a very good World Cup squad, "but we'd like to see them playing relaxed cricket.

He said that Hayward had been recalled after injury to add some much needed pace to a South African attack which he referred to generally as being "military medium".

"You've got to have something different," he said. "And we hope that Nantie will provide that."

The situation surrounding Allan Donald, however, remains unclear. Donald broke down during the first Test match and announced his retirement from Test cricket. He believes, however, that he has recovered sufficiently to play one-day cricket, but has had no contact with the South African selection convener.

Graeme Pollock was asked about Donald's availability but was unable to provide any clarity.

"I don't know about that," said Pollock. "You'll have to get hold of the convener."

Lance Klusener missed Saturday's match in Bloemfontein with a hamstring strain and may not be fit to play in the fifth game in Durban on Wednesday.

The squad is: Shaun Pollock (capt), Herschelle Gibbs, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Neil McKenzie, Jonty Rhodes, Mark Boucher, Boeta Dippenaar, Nicky Boje, Jon Kent, Lance Klusener, Nantie Hayward, Makhaya Ntini, Roger Telemachus.