Pakistan in South Africa - Preview

The Pakistan challenge will start in earnest against a powerful South African A side on Thursday and I expect that even though they battered the poor Zimbabweans into submission, the team that they put out for the game will be close to their best team.

It's not often that a team can arrive on a tour to South Africa with so many bad memories from the last time. The previous tour was dogged with controversy and with the Cronje saga still leaving many issues unresolved, certain anomalies will probably never be explained away.

I'm sure that many South African cricket lovers will remember the first Test at the Wanderers when the game was delayed for two days to allow certain Pakistan players to recover from a supposed mugging outside their hotel. So many stories did the rounds and whether something was covered up still lingers on today. I will not forget that Test for many reasons. It was the first time that we as a team got to see the "Rawalpindi Express", Shoaib Ahktar. Shoaib bowled at extreme pace and at that stage every player questioned his action. He even wore a blue elbow guard in the match! Mark Boucher and I were fortunate enough to set a new World record and rescue South Africa from a certain defeat.

It was the only Test that Gary Kirsten has captained for South Africa. Hansie Cronje had a sore back and pulled out. He came back for the next Test at Kingsmead and I was dropped after scoring a century. This meant that South Africa never played a spinner. Cronje bowled off spin--something he had never ever done before! Ironically, the pitch turned like a top and "little Mushi" took ten wickets in the match and suddenly South Africa were one nil down with a Test to play!

The final Test belonged to Fanie de Villiers who bowled Pakistan out for us to level the series. Sadly, at the height of his prowess, he retired immediately after that Test!

The ODI's went exceptionally well for us as we beat them in all four matches. However, it was always my opinion that they never performed at their best due to many issues that kept cropping up. They had captaincy problems and as opposition, we always knew they were a divided team.

Over the years, Pakistan has always had the reputation of being a team with loads of talent but poor discipline. Imran Khan was the one man capable of harnessing the talent and making them world-beaters. Not long ago they suffered at the hands of the Australians and all hell broke loose. Coaches were fired, administrators resigned and total chaos reigned. The recent series against Zimbabwe was never going create enough pressure to check the system now in place.

Whether they are serious contenders for the World Cup will be revealed over the next few weeks. Somehow they always seem to be their own worst enemy and it normally comes when under pressure. No doubt Pollock and his men will be very aware of it.