What a strange series is going on in South Africa at present, with both teams taking turn about to play brilliantly and poorly. The other day the hosts slaughtered England and scored 350 in their 50 overs, today it was a paltry 119 all out.
One of the frustrating things about South Africa as a side is that inconsistency. On paper they are one of the best sides in the world and that often translates to the pitch, yet they don't give the appearance of invincibility that the truly great sides have. I think the major issue is the lack of the real "over my dead body" players that a genuinely great side has.
Take the three great sides of my life time. The Australians under Steve Waugh were led by a man who would set the standard and had some fine players in the batting ranks who were of a similar mindset. Justin Langer, Matt Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting - in any era of the game they were great players and had the fight in them when things were going poorly. They also had two pretty useful bowlers in Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne...
The same went for the West Indies in their golden era. With quick bowlers like Holding, Roberts, Garner and Marshall there were some of the all time greats, while Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes would always produce when the chips were down.
Going back a little further, the South Africans of the late 1960's were outstanding. They had such a liberal sprinkling of genuine greatness in Barry Richards, Eddie Barlow, Graeme Pollock and Mike Procter that beating them was always going to be difficult.
The current South African side has players of brilliance - Smith, de Villiers, Kallis - yet they have an air of vulnerability that the genuine greats don't offer. I would accept Kallis as one of the greats of the game on his record and the other two may well end up as such, but Smith and de Villiers often give you a chance. Kallis is still the man that the oppisition want to see the back of more than anyone.
Maybe the problem is that the rest see themselves as bit part players and there's an element of "if they fail, how can we succeed?" Perhaps they need an Eddie Barlow who moulded teams of few stars into tight, competitive units by stressing the role that each played in the overall picture.
Having said that, I wouldn't say no to any of them at Derbyshire should the situation ever present itself. I've said before that South Africans offer good value as overseas signings and they do. Given that this season we may have Madsen, Park, Smith, Groenewald and Peterson in our ranks it would seem John Morris agrees.
Changing tack a little, a few weeks ago I wrote that I thought Adrian Barath may well be the next great West Indies player and his first tour to Australia, which was always going to be a learning curve, has done nothing to change that opinion. A 70 in the warm up match was followed by a Test debut century for the diminutive opener and I think he will have a long and illustrious career in the game. He looks compact and organised and while blessed with a full range of strokes seems less casual than many of his countrymen. At 19 he seems to have it all and the only thing he will need to prove is that the mental strength that is so important at the top level is there in abundance.
Finally today, an innings win for Victoria meant that Chris Rogers had no chance of a second knock for them, just as the Australians easy win over the Windies kept the pressure off Shane Watson the second time around. I'll be following that one closely over the winter months.
See you soon!
With Kallis in mind, don't you think it amazing how many all rounders seem come through the South African domestic game every generation. As a slight aside to this, but not altogether unconnected, I recall a discussion quite a few years ago when Dennis Amiss suggested smaller, yet more competitive county squads may be one way to go in an attempt to raise county playing standards. He further reasoned that this would, in turn, lead to more all rounders coming through the ranks.
ReplyDeleteThat is not so far off the mark, particularly if the ECB incentives/restrictions continue to limit foreign players and raise the associated salary claims of locally produced young pros. Amiss had squads of around 18 in mind, which would be reasonable if the figure excluded centrally contracted players and allowed for counties to dip into decent 2nd XI resources. It would knock around 70-80 players of the pro lists and would then tend to further echo Morris's comment regarding unestablished players soon disappearing from the game at aged only 26-27.
Whether this would be fair on the individual slow starter seems debatable, but it would certainly sharpen up the game in some respects. It could, of course, put some aspiring youngsters off the career gamble, though I suspect the really strong talent would still emerge and be attracted to the game.
MASTERVILLAIN