After losing about 250,000 potential customers in the troubled first Johannesburg Test against Pakistan, the home board are blocking live television coverage in the vicinity of the Kingsmead ground for the second game starting here today as pre-match ticket sales have reached little more than 1,000.

In Australia, television coverage is banned until the day's final session in the host city. South Africa are experimenting with a more cautious approach: two sessions on one day, Sunday, will be blacked out in an area with a population of three million.

The game faces competing sports interests. Auckland are playing Natal here on Saturday evening in the Super 12 rugby game and the football final of the African Nations Cup will be televised live.

Pakistan have not proved the most popular of touring sides after the controversy surrounding the alleged mugging of two of their players in Johannesburg.

Meanwhile, Hansie Cronje returns to captain South Africa after missing the first Test because of a knee operation, while Herschelle Gibbs and Daryll Cullinan experience new selectorial ruthlessness. Batsman Hylton Ackerman makes his debut.

South Africa (from): *W J Cronje, G Kirsten, A M Bacher, J H Kallis, H D Ackerman, A C Hudson, S M Pollock, -M V Boucher, L Klusener, P L Symcox, P R Adams, A A Donald, P S de Villiers.

Pakistan (probable): *Aamir Sohail, Saeed Anwar, Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Wasim, Azhar Mahmood, -Moin Khan, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis.