Shaun Pollock In RSA Team For First Test Against ENG (07 Nov 1995)

Electronic Telegraph Tuesday 7 November 1995 Cricket

S Africa Tour: Pollock puts faith in son Shaun for his first Test cap

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins in Kimberley

SOUTH AFRICA have seven Test selectors; England, as far as this tour is concerned, have two. Committees of all sizes are usually capable of coming up with something interesting, however, and yesterday Peter Pollock, the chairman, or "convenor", had the pleasure of announcing that his own 22-year-old son, Shaun, was in the national 12 to play against England in the first Test at Centurion Park near Pretoria next week.

S M Pollock has come to the fore more rapidly than his two cousins, Anthony and Andrew, the batting sons of the immortal Graeme, who have both played first-class cricket for Transvaal B.

Peter`s son, Shaun, is a fast bowler, like his father, but a more serious batsman. Red-headed, aggressive and, in his father`s words yesterday "quite sharp and a useful batsman, a genuine all-rounder in fact and a form player", Pollock virtually made certain of his place with a devastating seven for 33 against Border 10 days ago.

He and Clive Eksteen, already capped as a left-arm spinner, take over from the off-spinner Pat Symcox in a party otherwise unchanged from the team which defeated Zimbabwe in Harare a month ago, South Africa`s fifth Test win in a row.

It means that there are now five fast bowlers in the South African 12, at least four of whom must play. Either Pollock or Eksteen is the probable 12th man, depending on the final look of a pitch which the convenor expects to be "hard, with a fair covering of grass". He added, ominously, that "winning Tests is about bowling sides out; not how fast or slow the bowlers are".

If Pollock plays next Thursday he and Peter would become the 30th father and son combination to play for their country

There must be further doubt about the relevance of the England preparation so far for a Test on what the South Africans are obviously hoping will be a quick pitch, suited to their genuine fast-bowling strength. Biters have been known to be bit before, however, and England need have no fears if their own fast bowlers perform with the sort of accuracy that they did against Border.

Unfortunately there is no guarantee that their last warm-up match, against the South Africa A team starting here in Kimberley on Thursday, will be significantly more suitable as a dress rehearsal. The A team, also announced yesterday by Peter Pollock, includes two left-arm spinners, which does not suggest a quick pitch. One of the spinners chosen is Paul Adams, a left-arm chinaman and googly bowler who has emerged rapidly from the development programme in Cape Town, so rapidly indeed that he had played no first-class cricket before this last weekend.

First spotted by Eddie Barlow, and carefully watched at the weekend by Clive Rice - a level-headed observer if ever there was - he must have exceptional talent to have gained official recognition so swiftly. He is 18, a coloured player from the Cape Flats, and though he took only two for 89 in the first innings against Northern Transvaal in his first match for Western Province, he caused some consternation with the degree of his spin from a contorted action in which the trunk of his body is parallel to the ground as he delivers.

The remainder of the A team all have Test aspirations and there had been speculation that Jacques Kallis, at 20 the most exciting young batting talent in the land, would take over from Jonty Rhodes, whose Test scores since he was hit on the head by Devon Malcolm at the Oval last year are 10, 0, 1, 18, 72, 16, 0, 28, 15 and 6. For the first Test at least the selectors have backed Rhodes`s character, as England may Robin Smith`s.

If Pollock plays next Thursday he and Peter would become the 30th father and son combination to play for their country but only the fifth South African pair, after the Hearnes, Nourses, Tucketts and, most recently, the Lindsays, Denis Lindsay having been a member, with the Pollock brothers, of that last, all-conquering, South African team before isolation.

The England team arrived in Kimberley yesterday afternoon, in two hops via Johannesburg, immediately noticing the oppressive heat. They were greeted by a harmonious choir at their hotel in the town which grew beside the diamond mines.

Singing and mining must go together because this performance would have gained high marks in Treorchy. Here, however, it was accompanied by rhythmic dancing, not, I believe, a Welsh speciality.

South Africa A (v England, Kimberley, Nov 9-12): *J B Commins, G F J Liebenberg, P J R Steyn, J H Kallis, L J Wilkinson, L Klusener, -S J Palframan, N Boje, S D Jack, R Telemachus, P Adams.

South Africa (v England, 1st Test, Centurion Pk, Nov 16-20): A C Hudson, G Kirsten, *W J Cronje, D J Cullinan, J N Rhodes, B M McMillan, -D J Richardson, C R Matthews, A A Donald, B N Schultz, S M Pollock, C E Eksteen.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph