Smith furious over Nel's exclusion

South African cricket found itself in the middle of yet another selection row when Graeme Smith, the captain, and Mickey Arthur, the coach, had a showdown with Haroon Lorgat, the convener of South Africa's selection committee, just before the start of the Newlands game on Sunday over the exclusion of Andre Nel and the selection of Andrew Hall in his place.

The tiff happened just 15 minutes before the toss and the matter was presumably on Smith's mind as he walked out to open the innings. Significantly, he was dismissed off the second ball and could later be seen on the team balcony, a furious expression on his face. His mood could hardly have been lifted by his team's top-order batting.

Nel had starred in the crushing 157-run victory at Durban, scything through the Indian middle order on his way to superb figures of 4 for 13. He hurt a finger yesterday, when a spike on his shoe made contact during his follow-through. But having passed a fitness test this morning, he was almost certain to play until Lorgat intervened.

Smith reacted furiously, and Jacques Kallis and Gordon Templeton, the media manager, had to calm him down, before Mark Boucher also tried to make peace. At one stage, Kallis appeared to be waving Lorgat away.

South African cricket has been routinely plagued by discord over selection policy between successive team managements and the national selectors.