South Africa's first-class season starts on Thursday, October 7
with a number of question marks about the ability of the new
format to meet the challenges posed by heavier demands of an
international programme and added exposure of players of colour
through the quota system.
Centurion (South Africa) - In a year where the game
has in the last six months been top-heavy with limited overs
slogs and where the World Cup held centre stage along with a
series of satellite tournaments, the decline in batting standards
has become a noticeable and worrying feature. Which makes the
unveiling of this summer's new SuperSport Series format tomorrow
all the more important, especially in a season which embraces
the first serious movement in the United Cricket Board's
transformation policy, along with the first challenging steps
into the millennium allied with the promotion of North West
and Easterns to the A Section.
Divided into two sections the brave new world approach has been
designed to lift batting standards which even Peter Pollock,
the retired convener of the national selection panel, described
last season as generally disappointing. At the time he was
highlighting the erratic form of batsmen outside the group of
UCB contracted players. For the next three seasons at least
we have a system where the 11 teams are divided into two
pools with Northerns in Pool A and seeded seventh with their
first match today against neighbours Easterns at Willowmoore
Park in Benoni, once joint headquarters with Berea Park of the
old North Eastern Transvaal.
Sharing Pool A are Eastern Province, Border, Gauteng and
Griqualand West. Pool B has Natal, Free State, Western Province,
Boland and North West, an odd collection and on last year's
form the weaker of the two groupings. As Graham Ford, the
new South Africa coach, underlined this week the players have
much to play for in terms of recognition: the Sri Lanka A
tour as well as the England tour and the trip to India will
give players the chances they need to develop their game and
improve levels. The players must be aware of the opportunities
they have and that should make a major difference in their
approach to the first stage of the new season, he said.
The new format of the competition and the competition for places
in the side makes for an exciting start. At least Northerns go into
their opening game at Willowmoore Park today well prepared
and fresh from a month of intensive pre-season activity
although Peter Kirsten, the coach, expressed some disappointment
with the side's batting performances in the two matches in the
Cape. Although Johan Myburgh and Gerald Dros put together
innings of note, Dros' century against Eastern Province in
Port Elizabeth showed where he has benefited in part from his
experiences in Ireland this year where he played for the
Irish side in the NatWest Trophy. His driving, always a
powerful weapon in his strokeplay armoury, was of high quality
while Myburgh has shown that he has learnt to tighten his attack
brand of batting which made him the youngest South African to
score a first-class double century. Kirsten, a world-class
batsman in his day, has been impressed and pushing the
teenager into possibly the tricky No 3 slot in the order
is the sort of challenge the young man with his confidence
should enjoy.
Northerns bowling is based on the pace, swing and seam of an
attack which must rate among the top three in the country: Steve
Elworthy, Greg Smith and David Townsend provide a trio of cut
and thrust which Easterns, lacking in overall experience might
find their A Section debut one they may want to forget in a
hurry. Even Ray Jennings, the Easterns coach, agrees the side is
short of a couple of senior players, with or without their
West Indies hired gun Phil Simons who arrived yesterday while
Dennis Smith being preferred to Ivan Pistorius for the
wicketkeeping post. In the other A Pool game David Terbrugge's
appearance for Gauteng on a pitch which has often dented the
spirit of some of the country's finest bowlers will be
monitored while the form of the candidates in the two
Pool B matches will give the selectors something to chew
over. Free State are at home to Boland and in
Potchefstroom we have rookies North West facing what appears
to be a rejuvenated Natal side with all their stars.