CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

Fast bowler Nixon McLean yesterday became the third West Indies Test cricketer to sign a contract to play provincial cricket in South Africa in the coming season.

South African international Jonty Rhodes, a former captain of McLean's new team, KwaZulu-Natal, said he was "delighted" with the signing and charged that the West Indies had never got the best out of the 28- year-old Vincentian.

"Nixon has real pace and bowls for wickets, not maidens, but when they were on tour over here (1998-99), the West Indies would give the new ball to Walsh and Ambrose and were then looking for maidens from Nixon," Rhodes said in an interview with the Natal Witness newspaper.

"He couldn't take the pressure of having to keep it tight, especially since they were being hammered 5-0," he added. "He's a fiery guy who wants to come roaring in and that will be his role in Natal with the new ball."

McLean is on a one-year contract for the season that starts in just under a month. He replaces another West Indian, Barbadian all-rounder Ottis Gibson, who has played several seasons in South Africa but who withdrew from an earlier arrangement to join the province for the first time. Like former West Indies captain Jimmy Adams, who has been taken on to captain Free State, and fast bowler Franklyn Rose, who will be with Gauteng (formerly Transvaal), McLean's decision indicates a recognition that his Test career is effectively over.

He has taken 44 wickets in 19 Tests but was dropped after two Tests against South Africa in the Caribbean last season. He was subsequently omitted from the recent tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya, even after fast bowlers Merv Dillon, Cameron Cuffy and Kerry Jeremy had to return home because of injuries.

Rhodes noted that McLean is "fit and strong, with a fantastic physique for a fast bowler".

"He's tall, so he's going to get good bounce," he predicted. "He'll enjoy the pitches over here, especially since the pitches for provincial games, which are prepared for four days, not five, are normally `result' wickets, unlike at Test level, where it's more a war of attrition."

"I think it's a great effort to sign a genuine fast bowler who's got plenty to prove and won't come over and coast," Rhodes said.

© The Barbados Nation