Prince E: Likelihood of S.Africa playing a spinner (29Jul94)

THE LIKELIHOOD OF SOUTH AFRICAN PLAYING A SPINNER (This includes a history of South African spinners)

Since their re-introduction to International Cricket, South Africa just haven't been able to produce a spinner of Test quality. They have tried many who have little little or no success and this I believe has been the cause of them not being able to reach Top International Status as a Test side. When one looks at other sides one sees the virtually every Test Country has some or other spinner of genuine ability - here however I would exclude the West Indies and of course South Africa.

One only needs to look at the present Test teams and names like Mushtaq Ahmed, Peter Such, Matthew Hart, Shane Warne and Tim May, Stephen Peall and Anil Kumble come to mind. However when having a careful look at the South African team you will be sure to find no spinner. In fact in their last four tests South Africa has not featured any spinner of note.

Despite this however there have been a long line of spinners who have contested the place of spinner in the side.

On their first tour after isolation it was the two left-arm spinners Clive Eksteen and Tim Shaw who tried to make their way into international cricket. Sadly to say both failed. Shaw bowled mediocrely and poor Eksteen only bowled 2 overs which went for 18 runs before his captain told him to relax.

In the World Cup and in the West Windies South Africa pinned their spinning hopes on another left-arm spinner Omar Henry. Henry far past his best was not to enjoy any fruits of success and often was hit of the attack by audacious international batsmen whom the South Africans had never before encountered. Henry was then given a second chance against India when they toured South Africa in 1992-93 but his impact on the bowling was minimal and it was up to Allan Donald and Co. to dismiss the Indians.

Then came the tour of Sri Lanka and yes one can understand the pressure on the selectors to pick spinners who could exploit the turning Sri Lankan pitches. They picked Pat Symcox, who had been weighing in with good performances on the domestic scene and Clive Eksteen, who once again came into the reckoning. However this was all in vain. Eksteen was hardly given a bowl in his test debut while Symcox took two expensive wickets. Neither of these bowlers were give a test match for the rest of the series. However Symcox continued his useful role as a stock-spinner in the One Day Internationals. Symcox also performed averagely in Australia where he picked up some test wickets but played very little part in South Africa's historic win at Sydney.

Thus along came the tour to England. The two spinners chosen, Shaw and Symcox who have already been mentioned above have done much bowling in the warm up games but have not really looked like they can bowl sides out at test level. The second test at Headingley commences this Wednesday and questions surround the option of a spinner.

After considering the performances of the spinners Shaw and Symcox I have come to the conclusion that it is unlikely that South Africa will draft a spinner into the side especially with the success of the seamers and the necessity for six batsmen. Also considering that Headingley is tipped to favour the seamers will not benefit the spinners. So it becomes a formality that we shall see no South African spinners in action rather we will see constant pace as South Africa aim to bowl England out.