Klusener ready to tackle Harare Test role

Centurion: Life, as Zimbabwe batsmen are about to discover in Harare, is far less complicated for Lance Klusener, the fast bowler, than making a television add which shows him driving around the countryside with Allan Donald and a voice makeover of them singing ``pack up your troubles''.

At the World Cup 99 in England it was Zulu the batting warrior who rescued South Africa. Now the roles for the second Test of the series starting on Thursday will be reversed: there will be no voice makeover but the genuine article, not so much singing but strident appeals to the umpire for a favourable decision.

And anyone who has been on any type of tour with the Natal all-rounder whose provincial bowling career was partly shaped by the late and mourned Malcolm Marshall should be able to pin point the qualities which set him apart from others.

In Harare, with Jacques Kallis absent from the bowling attack to rest a knee inflammation caused by his long bowling spells in the Bloemfontein first Test, Klusener finds himself promoted to skipper Hansie Cronje's third front-line seamer-cum-swing bowler with a touch of pace thrown in to balance the options.

Three years ago in England with the South African A team he had to all but carry the attack after injuries to Kallis, Brett Schultz and Roger Telemachus saw the national selectors summon Meyrick Pringle and Gary Gilder to fill in.

It was the sort of challenge Klusener enjoyed and just how he shouldered the burden is reflected by his figures: double the number of overs delivered by all but Greg Smith and 31 wickets at 25.25 which, to an extent, lessened his effectiveness as a lower-order batsman. In the match against Surrey at The Oval his competitiveness was labelled ``bully tactics'' by the British media.

There is a theory in some local circles that without Donald in the attack South Africa are thin on the ground; Steve Elworthy's performance in Wellington earlier this year proved there is no place for such old wives tales or false scare tactics.

Graham Ford, South Africa's new coach, is in agreement. As his former provincial coach he knows all too well Klusener's capabilities and how to face up to a challenge.

``I know he can handle the role he is being asked in Harare,'' Ford said yesterday. ``He is the sort of player who when you offer him a challenge he will accept it: the sort he has tackled with success before.'' Klusener is not the type who would join a queue at Lord's, the Wanderers or Kingsmead anxious to buy a coaching video of perfect bowling actions, not when there is little wrong with what he has; even if his rewards at Test level have been short of wickets.