South Africa's first-class season starts on Thursday, October 7
with a number of question marks about the ability of the new
format to meet the challenges posed by heavier demands of an
international programme and added exposure of players of colour
through the quota system.
In a year where the game has in the last six months been
top-heavy with limited overs slogs and where the World Cup held
centre stage along with a series of satellite tournaments, the
decline in batting standards has become a noticeable and worrying
feature. Which makes the unveiling of this summer's new
SuperSport Series format tomorrow all the more important,
especially in a season which embraces the first serious movement
in the United Cricket Board's transformation policy, along with
the first challenging steps into the millennium allied with the
promotion of North West and Easterns to the A Section.
Divided into two sections the brave new world approach has been
designed to lift batting standards which even Peter Pollock, the
retired convener of the national selection panel, described last
season as generally disappointing. At the time he was
highlighting the erratic form of batsmen outside the group of UCB
contracted players.
For the next three seasons at least we have a system where the 11
teams are divided into two pools with Northerns in Pool A and
seeded seventh with their first match today against neighbours
Easterns at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, once joint headquarters
with Berea Park of the old North Eastern Transvaal. Sharing Pool
A are Eastern Province, Border, Gauteng and Griqualand West. Pool
B has Natal, Free State, Western Province, Boland and North West,
an odd collection and on last year's form the weaker of the two
groupings.
As Graham Ford, the new South Africa coach, underlined this week
the players have much to play for in terms of recognition: the
Sri Lanka A tour as well as the England tour and the trip to
India will give players the chances they need to develop their
game and improve levels. "The players must be aware of the
opportunities they have and that should make a major difference
in their approach to the first stage of the new season," he said.
"The new format of the competition and the competition for places
in the side makes for an exciting start."
At least Northerns go into their opening game at Willowmoore Park
today well prepared and fresh from a month of intensive
pre-season activity although Peter Kirsten, the coach, expressed
some disappointment with the side's batting performances in the
two matches in the Cape. Although Johan Myburgh and Gerald Dros
put together innings of note, Dros' century against Eastern
Province in Port Elizabeth showed where he has benefited in part
from his experiences in Ireland this year where he played for the
Irish side in the NatWest Trophy. His driving, always a powerful
weapon in his strokeplay armoury, was of high quality while
Myburgh has shown that he has learnt to tighten his attack brand
of batting which made him the youngest South African to score a
first-class double century. Kirsten, a world-class batsman in his
day, has been impressed and pushing the teenager into possibly
the tricky No3 slot in the order is the sort of challenge the
young man with his confidence should enjoy. Northerns bowling is
based on the pace, swing and seam of an attack which must rate
among the top three in the country: Steve Elworthy, Greg Smith
and David Townsend provide a trio of cut and thrust which
Easterns, lacking in overall experience might find their A
Section debut one they may want to forget in a hurry.
Even Ray Jennings, the Easterns coach, agrees the side is short
of a couple of senior players, with or without their West Indies
hired gun Phil Simons who arrived yesterday while Dennis Smith
being preferred to Ivan Pistorius for the wicketkeeping post. In
the other A Pool game David Terbrugge's appearance for Gauteng on
a pitch which has often dented the spirit of some of the
country's finest bowlers will be monitored while the form of the
candidates in the two Pool B matches will give the selectors
something to chew over. Free State are at home to Boland and in
Potchefstroom we have rookies North West facing what appears to
be a rejuvenated Natal side with all their stars.