Relaid Newlands Wicket Awaits Brett Schultz (18 May 1996)

18 May 1996

Relaid Newlands wicket awaits Brett Schultz

Western Province`s already well-stocked cricket arsenal has captured another big gun with the signing of menacing Eastern Province fast bowler Brett Schultz. In a week of interesting developments on the cricket front, there is also speculation that the crack Sri Lankan Aravinda de Silva, man of the match in this year`s world cup final, is considering overtures from Northern Transvaal.

After 7 seasons with his home province, Schultz will leave an Eastern Province team that can ill afford the loss of such a key player. Although dogged by injury and controversy throughout his career, the left arm strike bowler had hit peak form again at the end of the season. His hat-trick against Transvaal at the Wanderers showed again what a devastating bowler he can be and he is likely to thrive in the strong Western Province set-up.

De Silva arrived in South Africa on Friday. It was suggested that the purpose of his visit was to visit a game farm in Mpumalanga but, significantly, he first paid a visit to Centurion Park.

Northerns, looking for a replacement for West Indian opener Clayton Lambert, are said to have cut their list of prospective overseas players to 4 after discussions with Pakistan`s Aamir Sohail, former West Indies skipper Richie Richardson, de Silva and Australian Dean Jones.

Of them all, though, de Silva would be the biggest capture. He scored an undefeated 107 of 124 balls in the World Cup final against Australia in March, an innings that took his 1996 World Cup aggregate to 448 runs and placed him third in the batting averages with 89.60. His impressive record includes 53 tests and 180 one-day internationals. His test record is 3176 runs at an average of 35.68 which is fair considering the tests Sri Lanka have played in recent years.

His 5290 runs in limited-over internationals at 33.06 is a fair comment on his performances. This includes 5 100s and 36 50s.

Schultz, meanwhile, has opted for Western Province after turning down an offer to play for Transvaal.

Last season, with Craig Matthews and Brian McMillan only sporadically available to WP because of national duty, Meyrick Pringle (41 wickets) and Aubrey Martyn (20) carried the attack and played a major role in the Castle Cup going to Newlands.

Although WP could lose Schultz for much of the season to the test team, the likelihood of him, McMillan, Matthews and Pringle all being chosen for South Africa at the same time would be extremely remote.

Schultz will probably be glad to be leaving the St George`s Park pitch in Port Elizabeth, which has been something of a graveyard for fast bowlers, and should find the relaid Newlands wicket more to his liking.