T Chesterfield: Wessels may play again (26 Oct 95)

TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAY - WESSELS

Trevor Chesterfied

While Kepler Wessels needs only one big score to convince the national selectors that he is ready to return to the test squad, the left-hand batsman still remains unconvinced. So too, it seems, that Peter Pollock and members of his national selection panel who will be monitoring Wessels performance against Northern Transvaal at Centurion Park tomorrow, when the opening round of Castle Cup matches start. Yet what better place for Wessels to make up his mind than the venue for the first test against Mike Atherton`s side. Already the left-handed, whose style causes much anguish among purists, has received an inquiry over his availability for the five-match test series against England, who are playing in Soweto at the same time as Wessels leads EP. And while he has indicated he is still retired, there is a feeling the former South African could make himself available again for the series starting; at Centurion Park on November 16. Which could do much to help alleviate the middle, order problems facing Pollack`s national selection panel as they ponder their line up for the test series. A run of good scores between now and November 7 could help him make up his mind. Not that it worries Wessels, who with his own brand of single-minded dedication worked hard during the off-season to reach peak fitness. There is no trouble either with his knee injury. Yet there is also a sneaking suspicion that he feels he is best suited to the middle order role: either four or five. "I am still retired as a test player. I treat each game as it comes. It really is a wait and see situation," he said. There has long been a view that Hansie Cronje should be batting no higher than four in the order and that means South Africa, in the tests against England, need to look six specialist batsmen for the first three tests at least and revert to a four-pronged pace and seam attack. This would mean reinstating Rudolf Steyn at possibly three in the order and finding a gap for Wessels at four and Cronje at five; or switching the two positions if need be.

Pretoria News Oct 26, 1995