World Cup star Klusener may get the chop

Port Elizabeth - It has become the big debating point at St George's Park on the eve of the second Test and a national selectors' mid-pitch conference today is unlikely to settle the argument who to leave out of the South African side for the game against England.

First it was the theory that Jonty Rhodes was on the doubtful list. Now we have Lance Klusener as the national selectors' fall guy and the man facing the chop.

This emerged yesterday as the decision of Rushdi Magiet's panel to wrap some of their stars in cotton wool this past weekend and shield them from possible injury may have been an error of judgement.

There has long been a wail from the bleachers that South Africa do not need their World Cup hero in Test matches as his bowling contributes so little.

Hence he should be shipped off to where Natal are playing a Super Eights match this weekend instead of the second Test against England at St George's Park.

The argument is that South Africa cannot afford to drop one of their top six batsmen and therefore Rhodes must now stay and the all-rounder who back in June earned the World Cup Player of the Tournament award should, if there was any genuine criteria, not play in the slogs as well.

Yet it is known that Klusener thrives on the heavy workload as the argument for more pace as the psychological warfare is stepped up a notch or two with Mornantau Hayward seen, by many as Klusener's obvious replacement. The three-pronged attack of Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald along with the peroxide haired Hayward is seen as the ideal attack to blow away Nasser Hussain's side. The pitch St George's Park pitch is far from the bowler friendly surface which favoured South Africa at the Wanderers 15 days ago when the heavy atmosphere contributed to much of the sideways movement. The grass is dry and although green in texture is unlikely to suit the explosive type of bowlers: Hayward being one example. It will aid the swing bowler more.

With Jacques Kallis still unable to bowl, though, the balance of the attack is not as it should be and with the skipper, Hansie Cronje, admitting South Africa were a fast bowler light at the Wanderers, the theory has been floating around about who is going to get the chop.

It known that Cronje strongly favours the top-six batsmen policy as it has been one of the reasons for South Africa's success in the last 10 home Tests as well as the one in New Zealand and Zimbabwe.

Those who view the Hayward for Klusener theory need to examine the thoughts of the coach, Graham Ford which were made shortly before the second Tests against Zimbabwe in Harare. He felt that if you gave Klusener a role to play as a fast bowler and he will come through. And he did.

The first Test at the Wanderers was a different case in point as Donald and the world's No1 bowler, Shaun Pollock, twice knocked over England for paltry totals in the first Tests of the series and the holding role Klusener played was just a support job. It was from this where came the argument that extra pace was needed.

The idea is to wipe out England's top order in similar fashion, with Michael Atherton as the man to blow away in the first couple of overs. South Africa looked impressive when they went through their afternoon net session at St George's yesterday to prepare for the game.

Donald's rest since the Wanderers is going to help him further recover from the rib injury which threatened to force him out of the match in the Bullring where he ended with 11 wickets and Pollock eight. Conditions though may not be so favourable, hence all the queries about Hayward's abilities to front up as the third fast bowler.

When it is considered that Hayward may have looked fast and furious against the Western Province batsmen, knocking over the top order is the result which counts not the finger wagging exercise and verbal conflict with Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten. It is all part of the Hayward hype, though.

Rather bowl with control and get wickets though than bowl flat out and try and look impressive and end up with no reward at all as South Africa look for a fourth consecutive success by an innings this summer and an 11th consecutive victory at home.

England, however, look to have settled on a new strike force in their attack with Alex Tudor most likely coming in for Gavin Hamilton after Duncan Fletcher indicated he thought Chris Silverwood was in need of a lot more work to satisfy the selectors of his match fitness.

Tudor was not as rusty in Durban as he was in Centurion and chances are there will be a straight swap with Hamilton while the top six remains and Tufnell taking over from Alan Mullally who has a slight knee niggle. Their top six will remain as they were at the Wanderers.

South Africa (from): Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Daryll Cullinan, Hansie Cronje (capt), Jonty Rhodes, Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher, Allan Donald, Paul Adams, David Terbrugge, Mornantau Hayward. Twelfth man: Boeta Dippenaar.

England (possibly from): Michael Atherton, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain (capt), Michael Vaughan, Alec Stewart, Chris Adams, Andrew Flintoff, Gavin Hamilton Alex Tudor, Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough, Phil Tufnell.

Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (SA) and Steve Bucknor (WI); TV: Dave Orchard

Hours of play: 10.30am-12.30pm;1.10pm-3.10pm; 3.30-5.30.