Tough tour schedule for South Africa

Johannesburg - Such is the congestion of the international programme these days South Africa head for India today, having come off the back of a limited-overs series and on Saturday step into a three-day game which is meant to act as preparation for a two match Test series.

India is far from the easiest part of the Asian sub-continent to visit and to help out their visitors the Indians have generously added a second `practice' match to the schedule. It is the least they could do considering the brevity of the first-class programme.

The problem is the dates between the first and second Tests need to be changed and the name of the venue has still to be conveyed to the South Africans, but that is as easy as whistling up the sort of rope trick the hosts are good at providing.

Two practice games and two Tests hardly seems to be the sort of tour to send off a part of 14 players with three of them acting as cover, Boeta Dippenaar for one of the openers, Nicky Boje now for Clive Eksteen and Mornantau Hayward possibly for Allan Donald. Whether Hayward is going to get a nod depends largely on how the touring party's selection panel views the conditions. Neither Mumbai nor Bangalore are easy venues and the way the Indians have packed their side for the game against the Board XI at the CCI ground in Mumbai.

What bothers the coach, Graham Ford, however, is the lack of appreciation on what comes down to time constraints in preparing a side for a two Tests with a couple of three-day practice matches.

'It is going to be a major challenge for the side,' Ford said last night. 'We have just ended a limited-overs series and head straight into a Test series with a three-day game as preparation. it is far from ideal.' He was not making excuses either as the side, apart from Dippenaar and Hayward are seasoned campaigners and know enough about Indian conditions to adapt quickly enough. But his argument of barely a week out of a slogs series into the demands of a Test tour is going to be tough, even on the seasoned players.

'It calls for high levels of mental toughness needed to face the demands of sub-continent conditions,' said Ford. 'The extra three-day game should be of some help to prepare for the second Test. No one, save for a couple who were involved in the SuperSport Series final has played in a first-class game for about six weeks so they have to establish form again.' It is easy to sympathise with Ford although a couple of players, Allan Donald one of them, has a personal ambition and that is taking 300 wickets in a Test career.

Whether he plans, having achieved this, to call his Test career quits after Bangalore is another matter. He has promised South Africa one more season, but the way the selectors treated him over the recently concluded triangular series is another matter. Already there are indications he is not available for the West Indies tour some 12 months away. Donald's purpose apart from the 10 wickets required to reach 300 is to help groom Hayward as well as bowl, for the last time, in front of Indian crowds with their passion for the game.

'When you look at it 300 is a nice round figure,' Donald said when he leaked his plans to retire as a Test bowler within 12 months. 'If I take the 300th in India I'll have to see what comes up.'

What mitigates against him continuing his career after India is whether he is going to play in the home series of limited-overs games against Australia in April.

Hansie Cronje is another with a personal ambition. He would enjoy South Africa winning, or at least sharing the series on this tour. It would at least keep the national selectors off his back as they seem to struggle with identifying a role for players available.

They have been accused of 'losing the plot' by more than one former foreign player as well as South African Test player. The choice of Makhaya Ntini for the Sharjah leg of the limited-overs circus is one and there is also the problem of the Sri Lanka tour later in the year, followed by the Singapore tournament and the games in Australia.

Cronje has a major role to play as captain and if the words of Fanie de Villiers are heeded, he will be around until after the West Indies tour if the selectors are honest enough to give him their support.

Itinerary: February 19-21: BCCI President's XI, Mumbai; 24-28: first Test, Mumbai, Feb 30-March 1 three-day game (venue TBA); March 3-7 third Test; LOIs, March 10, Cochin, March 12, Jamshedpur, March 15, Faridabad, March 17 Baroda, March 19 Nagpur.