South Africa-A v West Indians

Pietermaritzburg (South Africa) - West Indies tour of South Africa, already a marketing exercise disaster, has run aground on further rocks of controversy as the first day's play against South Africa A was abandoned as the light began to improve.

Not that seemed to worry the umpires or what is largely regarded as the worst West Indies side to have undertaken a tour in living memory. Half an hour after play was called off at The Oval, Alexandra Park, the sun was out and the South African A players indulged their skills in an impromptu game of soccer while the Windies did some exercise. Amid all this activity disgruntled spectators left the this historic venue in the hear of the Natal capital accusing officials of ``robbing the public'' as the chairman of the Maritzburg Cricket Association, Mike Hickson, said that the hours of hard work into marketing the game had ``been flushed down the tube'' by an irresponsible act. No one can blame him either, as the game had already been disrupted with a decision by the United Cricket Board to delay the start until 1pm local time with half the South African A side being flown in from various venues to accommodate the provinces involved in last night's domestic Standard Bank League.

Yet as Graham Ford, the South African A team coach discovered, mobile telephones can be a handy instrument in time of need. But even this sort of modern technology did nothing to sort out plans to have a lengthy discussion regarding a game plan between Ford and the captain, Nic Pothas discovered since the announcement of the South African A side a week ago. In their wisdom the UCB's decision to allow the provinces the use of their players for their day/night slogs, and spread as they are all around the country, what chance the team had of even a few moments of pre-match preparation. Roll call at tea at the first team practice yesterday was more about ticking off the ``no's'' than crossing out the ``yes's'' as the coach, Ford looked at what was half a squad. Missing were Pothas, Makhaya Ntini, Charl Willoughby, Shafiek Abrahams, Sven Koenig, and Justin Kemp. Finally Pothas was able to walk out about 1.30 to toss with Carl Hooper, taking off the captaincy of the side for this game as Lara demoted himself to the bench for the four day outing, which when it finally started, was full of misrepresented expectation.

Apart from the opening spell by Lance Klusener what there was of the first day's play - 34.2 overs - continued to provide further example of the alarming level to which the game has sunk to in the West Indies. His seven overs were tight and he nipped the ball off the seam without difficulty, taking the wicket of Stewart Williams for four. After all, figures of 7-5-8-1 are going to be as good as any and could help him reclaim his Test placeAs for the rest the tourists limped to an unsatisfactory 77 for three. There was an awful wind up drive by Clayton Lambert, his foot which gave Makhaya Ntini a wicket courtesy of a Pothas catch.

Ntini was far more on target than he has been in recent games while the young Eastern Province all-rounder Justin Kemp grabbed the wicket of Hooper when he yorked the caretaker capatin. And what was nice to see about Ntini was his ability to bowl into the channel and not spray too much leg side. There were some fancy stroke from Shavrnaine Chanderpaul who has scored a stylish 27 not out at the ``enforced close'' and played the bowling on its merits, with Paul Adams tying up a bemused Darren Ganga. Hopefull we will get a full day in and a chance to see the three Test bowling candidtaes: Klusener, Adams and Ntini in action. The public here deserve it.

Day 2: Chanderpaul's tour rescue act

PIETERMARITZBURG - On a pitch which was as soft as putty and slow enough not to bother a front-foot player, no one was able to get a ball up Shavnarine Chanderpaul's nose.

And any one would have tried to tempt the young test batting star on such a pudding would have ended up over the fence.

But the brilliant little left-hander showed at least a touch of old West Indian batting master class in a century which has brought some sunshine to what is supposed to see the resurrection of the touring team's fortunes with the crucial third test six days away.

A test debutant at 19, Chanderpaul is the sort of batsman who is inclined to use his kop as he works out the bowling whole the others, around him, indulge in slog tactics. The 24-year-old scored his first tour century and what a performance it was at historic Alexandra Oval before bad light stopped play and rain forced the umpires to abandon the match before the tea break - no too unusual in this neck of the outpost.

At which stage the West Indians, 256 for six, are likely to bat well into the third day of a game which has now lost what interest there was other than an exercise in batting semantics and Lance Klusener's bid to regain his place in the test squad. Yet the main batting protagonists, Chanderpaul was 132 not out and all-rounder Rawl Lewis on four when the light closed in.

Although, as Bruce Groves, a former Natal batting star admitted yesterday ``We scored 50 at Berea Park (in Pretoria) in light a lot worse than this''.

And late in the afternoon, the sun started to break through again at the now deserted oval at the garden end of the city. By 5.30pm play might have been possible. Especially after the embarrassment if Saturday when umpires Dave Orchard and Wild Diedricks sold the crowd short on the opening day.

Yet Chanderpaul, the young man with a touch which is so reminiscent of the great Alvin Kallicharran who batted with similar thought and ability when he turned out for the great sides the Windies turned out in the 1970s.

He agreed that Klusener bowled well and admitted he ``swung the ball nicely - bothered me a bit on occasions `` while Justin Kemp ``pitched it up well'' and was also ``there or there abouts'' when the ball snuck around enough to earn him two wickets.

Yet, when much of this match is remembered, it will be for Chanderpaul's batting and Klusener's bowling. The test all-rounder, attempting to regain his place in the side, had the 5,000 or so spectators cheering as he first removed Darren Ganga, caught in the first gully position by Shafiek Abrahams and then Floyd Riefer, trapped lbw for a duck. A rumble of expectancy ran through the crowd as they hoped for a hat-trick, but it fail to materialise.

Junior Murray stepped up and survived - but just.

The ball kicked off a length and left the wicketkeeper-batsman and left him wondering what next to expect from the Natal all-rounder.

What was disappointing for South African selectors Mike Procter and Rushdie Majiet were the performances of Makhaya Ntini and Paul Adams. Ntini was caught in the crossfire of the silky strokes from Chanderpaul and the more belligerent style of ``slog, slash and hope to survive'' offered by Murray. He may have bettered well for a while, but was not in the same batting class as Chanderpaul.

Neither has been the skipper, Brian Lara, on this ill-fated tour.

Ntini's opening overs yesterday (as with Saturday) cause some problems with the ball slanted across the right-hander Ganga; then Chanderpaul climbed in and rewrote his bowling statistics with an unpleasant reminder that over-pitching on this surface is a genuine crime against the code of fast bowling ethics. Chanderpaul helped himself handsomely to a few extra boundaries.

In fact anything short, or up to Chanderpaul, suffered as dramatically as it have done to a classy left-hander whose hands are working as smartly as the foorwork and boundaries flow with classic simplicity than an over-elaboration of strokes.

The 50, off 91 balls with the score at 113 for three was an example of how he rotated the strike with Ganga. The partnership yielded 71 and the 50 was in 140 balls.

But with Chanderpaul cover driving Abrahams for four to reach his 50 and straight-driving Kemp for two, was the sort of example of correct technique and an ability to apply the sort of knowledge which sets him apart from the other batsmen in this team.

Day 3: Koenig shines as young talent starts to emerge

Trevor Chesterfield

Pietermaritzburg - Young Guns they may be and talented is also a fair description for a South African A side which has gelled together despite pre-match handicaps and niggling harassments of the first two days of a four-day outing against the West Indians.

While their game, in terms of a result, is heading exactly no where after bad light, rain and a groundsman's eagerness (on Saturday) to abort play, which left a lot of egg on the local association's face, the cloud finally stayed away yesterday and the sun shone on two contrasting batting performances from left-hand batsmen of whom we should hear much more, at least this season.

We had Shavnarine Chanderpaul, adding 50 to his overnight score of 132 and nurse the tourists innings to 375, which at least caused Clive Lloyd to smile for about the first time this tour, and later their was Sven Koenig applying different technique and defence application to pull together his fifth half-century of the season. So far it is top score in a South African A score of 188 for four, with more likely to come today from Martin van Jaarsveld and his close friend and the A Team skipper Nic Pothas.

Yet it takes a left-handed batsman of rare talent and quality to rescue a touring side from being torpedoed and then sunk without trace. The last West Indian entrusted to perform such a task was no lees than Sir Gary Sobers whose 257 at the Adelaide Oval rescued the World XI tour of Australia in 1971/72 after the South African tour was in danger of being classed as a gigantic flop after early failures.

At The Oval, Alexandra Park, it has been Chanderpaul who has stepped up to performed the rescue act. as he nursed the West Indians to touch of batting respectability. It was a timely reminder, six days before the crucial third test of the series that there is someone in the Caribbean team who has the ability to bat and bat with care and attention to detail.

The young Guyanese, following in the footsteps of countryman Alvin Kallicharran, knows a thing or two about ball placement, which saus much for his innings of 182. Although most of his 26 fours and six were placed through the line rather than the normal Windies habit of wrist strokeplay. Classic drives rather than square cuts peppered the advertising boards. There was one four which flew between cover and mid-off which had more grace than anything Brian Lara has managed so far on this tour.

Then we had sight of the quality footwork of Koenig whose batting and mannerisms are so shaped in the Jackie McGlew fashion that only being a left-hander prevents him from being a carbon copy of the late great South African opening batsman and captain. It could, perhaps, have something to do with Koenig going to school at Hilton College, up in the misty hills surrounding the Natal capital which is close enough to Maritzburg College as McGlew was to his form special form of batting defence.

Koenig, third out for 51 off 132 balls with the South African A score on 115 was desperately disappointed. But even he would have to admit is was poor shot selection which cost him advancing his score to a long awaited century. He has scored 561 runs this season and his average of 72.5 is nothing to be written off either, but at least he anchored the innings. Justin Kemp looked as flashy as he was aggressive in scoring 38 while Ashwell Prince was looking good until he was bowled for 35 by leg-spinner Rawl Lewis. Much promise frittered away on lose strokes, but it shows that South Africa A has young players with talent.

Day 4: Klusener hits the right spot

Trevor Chesterfield

PIETERMARITZBURG - If Peter Pollock's national selection panel had hoped to receive a few positive signals over the past four days they would have been seriously disappointed at The Oval, Alexandra Park yesterday.

In fact the way the South Africa A game against the West Indians in this sleepy corner of that mouthful known as KwaZulu/Natal has been handled gives the sneaking impression that the UCB have given the tourists a reverse two finger salute.

Naturally the UCB would deny this sort of treatment, but with the game starting one and a half sessions late and the equivalent of two sessions lost on days one and two, chances of watching an entertaining fireworks display during what was left of the match was almost out of the question.

And whether Mike Procter, the selector on hand most of the four days, apart from Lance Klusener's bowling, learnt anything new in his report back to Pollock and Co is a debatable point.

It might even help Pollock and Co if they could add Klusener to the squad for the Kingsmead test starting on Saturday. There would be no harm in an additional member and his ability to swing the ball was an interesting exercise in dynamics. Even Nic Pothas, the South African A team captain agreed that Klusener ``is ready to play (tests) again''.

Yet there is also little doubt that the West Indies selectors learnt more about the form of their prospective candidates for Kingsmead, as the third test looms, than did the precious little for Pollock's national panel to mull over.

It was Pothas, who after the game ended in a tame draw with the Windies placed at 95 for three in their second innings, felt the tourists batting had apart from Shavnarine Chanderpaul, not looked in ``good nick''.

Chanderpaul planted the first tree at the gound to celebrate his innings of 182 and signed a few autographas as well. This was after he had enjoyed bubbling over the throw which terminated Lance Klusener's innings for 18 with a nifty bit of run out work.

Yet he agreed that Franklyn Rose (as did Malcolm Marshall the West Indians coach) looked to have struck the right length while Nixon McLean also displayed his willingness to put the ball in the right place.

Pothas, possibly in his first role as captain of anything since his school days, was more than pleased of the total of 293 put together by the South African A team as the pace bowlers had the ball ``going up and down'' and generating some pace. Had it been a propper four day match the conditions, he admitted, would ``have been far from easy''.

He also felt pleased with the work Klsuener had put in, although Pollock and Co had decided in Port Elizabeth what they wanted as a team.

``No, the match wasn't a complete waste of time and I think we all learnt a lot from it. Makhaya Ntini still has a bit of work to do, but bowled with pace and Paul (Adams) is starting to come back into it again.

``Look, he's not bowling as well as he should for say a test, but he's slowly comeing back into again and that's nice to see. He's not creating the pressure you need from a test, but he's coming on.''

Which means that as an exercise it did have some pluses?

``I think it did. We learnt a lot and also it was our intention to allow them to strike form,'' he added.

Pothas was also surprised that Carl Hooper (captain for this match) and Rawl Lewis bowled 70 overs of spin. It was Hooper who bowled Martin van Jaarsveld with one of the rare balls to sucttle along the pitch at ankle height. The Northerns batsman had little chance to keep it out, yet apart from that one mistake, there was little wrong with his batting.

Marshall was not too forthcoming in his comments about the match being used as a build up for the test and felt while the ``quicks did their job'' the match had been ruined by the weather and from that aspect was ``most disappointing for us''.