Who will open for South Africa? (20 October 1998)

20 October 1998

Who will open for South Africa?

By Bob Dubery

South Africa are heading to Bangladesh with a severely weakened pace attack. For various reasons Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Roger Telemachus and Lance Klusener are either unavailable or were not considered.

An attack of Ntini, Elworthy, Dawson and Kallis seems somehow less efficient and menacing, but with a 5 Test series against the West Indies starting next month the biggest concern in South African cricket circles is not the make up of the attack (Donald is being rested and Pollock and Klusener are expected to be fit) but rather finding an opening partner for Gary Kirsten.

Gerry Liebenberg is the man in possession, but even the most generous critic would not be able to call his Test campaign in England a success, and there's no doubt that if Adam Bacher had not injured his shoulder Liebenberg would have had less chances.

Bacher would seem to be the best bet for the number 2 spot in the order, but his fitness is still an unknown quantity, and he has not scored well since returning to active duty with Gauteng. By his own admission he is not sure of his own form and doesn't want to go up against Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh unless he is feeling confident that he can do the job.

Daryll Cullinan will open for SA in the Wills Tournament in Bangladesh, but, typically, he is not openly enthusiastic about his new position in the line-up. "It's the job I've been given, and so I must do it," is his non-committal response.

There are many, including Gauteng skipper Ken Rutherford, who believe that Cullinan is the most naturally gifted player in South Africa. Whether this makes him the man to do the job at the top of the order or not is moot. He certainly has the technique to do well against top-class fast bowling. His problems at Test level have generally been provoked by the presence of a top-class spin bowler (notably Shane Warne), but a series against the West Indies should present a threat that Cullinan is ideally equipped to deal with. Moving him up to the top of the order would leave a gap at 4, but Sout h Africa might well find it easier to fill that gap than the one at number 2. Cullinan is now opening for Gauteng in Standard Bank games and has done well. However the Standard Bank League is a very different prospect from a Test series against the West Indies, and the selectors have indicated that they want to see if Cullinan can do a "Tendulkar" and flourish during the early overs of the one-day game when the fielding side is artificially constrained.

Jacques Kallis opened, and did well, when playing for Middlesex in the English county championship, but the number 3 spot has so often been problematic for South Africa and Kallis has done so well there that the selectors will be loathe to move him to any other spot in the order.

Andrew Hudson's loss of form seems permanent, Herschelle Gibbs has not realised his talents (and seems to lack application) and Liebenberg has not been found favour with the selectors since the England campaign. So it would seem that the choice must be between Bacher and two dark horses - Mike Rindel and Eastern Province's Louis Koen.

Rindel and Koen have both played ODIs for South Africa. Rindel at 34, is not too old. He was sent to England as a replacement for Bacher but was never considered for a Test match, and his method is better suited to the short game where he can hit over the top in the early overs and the selectors seem to regard his as a one-day specialist.

Koen is 30 now, and is entering his 12th season of first class cricket, but it's only in the last year or two that he has been seriously considered by the selectors. He's certainly given his critics pause with a superb knock for Eastern Province against Griquas (he made the second highest score ever in South African domestic day/night cricket). That one swallow may or may not be the harbinger of a glorious summer, but there is a opening in the national side and Koen will never have a better chance to stake his claim.

You can't help thinking that one reasonably good looking knock from Adam Bacher will do the trick and see him restored to the number 2 spot alongside Gary Kirsten, but if Koen can grasp the nettle he might yet force a selectorial rethink.

Source :: Bob Dubery