Majola advocates more blacks in Test team

At least four or five black cricketers could be selected for South Africa's Test tour to India next month, after Gerald Majola, the chief executive of the United Cricket Board, urged the national selectors to be "more adventurous" when sizing up the contenders.

Majola, who had a meeting with the selectors on Thursday, told them not to rely on "tried and tested" players, but instead insisted that the team take a broader view. "I really believe that we should have four or five players going to India in a squad of 14 players," he told a South African parliament committee. "I will be shocked if the team is not representative."

It is increasingly likely that the side will be without the services of two of senior players in Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje, who fear prosecution by Delhi Police for their part in the match-fixing scandal that dogged South Africa's last tour to India in 1999-2000, and so an opportunity has arisen for some new faces to be included.

Furthermore, the fading fortunes of South Africa's Test and one-day sides provides an opportunity for such change to be implemented without causing a massive public outcry. The team has slipped from second to sixth in Tests, and from second to eighth in one-dayers, and such a downturn has not gone unnoticed.

"That is not where we belong as South Africans. We believe we belong in the first two," added Majola. "We should be either beating Australia or coming second to Australia."