Bowling crisis for SA cricket
2006-04-10 21:35
Cape Town - South African cricket faces a bowling crisis and there is no quick-fix.
A glance at the Proteas averages in the recent Test Series against Australia show clearly why the Proteas are sixth on the International Cricket Council's Test rankings.
Makhaya Ntini and to a lesser extent Andre Nel are the only South African bowlers who have the ability to take wickets on a regular basis.
It does not matter how good your batsmen perform, but if you cannot take 20 wickets, you cannot win a Test.
Allan Donald, the man who has to prepare South Africa's future Test bowlers for international cricket, recently acknowledged that it would take four or five years to get the next generation of bowlers ready for top-level cricket.
Garnett Kruger and Dale Steyn are the next two bowlers in the pipeline and even though Steyn took 5-124 against the Dolphins on Sunday, he is still quite inexperienced.
Ntini, who took 28 wickets in 4½ Tests, was without doubt the Proteas top bowler. In fact he had a better summer than the Aussies fast bowler, Brett Lee.
No one will argue that the Aussies top order is better than the Proteas. You also have to remember how many catches the Proteas fumbled in comparison to the Aussies fielding that was top-notch.
Best bowler of all times
Ntini took 28 wickets in 198.2 overs at an average of 24.60. Lee, in comparison, took 30 wickets in 249 overs at an average of 25.10. Lee twice took five wickets in an innings, the same as the South African seamer.
Ntini's 28 wickets are more than what Allan Donald - perhaps South Africa's best bowler of all times - ever took against the Aussies in one summer.
The real differences between the two teams is the support for the top notch bowler.
Shaun Pollock used to be one of the best seamers in Test cricket, but he apparently does not have the ability any more to take wickets with the new ball. Twelve wickets at an average of 58.33 off 234.4 overs are just not good enough anymore.
Shane Warne (29) and Stuart Clark (20 in just three Tests) support Lee brilliantly, but only Andre Nel has supported Ntini. At the end of the series against the Aussies, Nel was so tired that he bowled even slower than Pollock.
By the time the selectors and team management eventually decided to give the new ball to Nel, he was in no physical condition to do justice to the confidence shown in him.
South Africa had no answer to Shane Warne's brilliance. He sent down nearly 300 overs in the two Test series.
Even though his 29 wickets in the two Test series are fewer than what he took against the Proteas in the past, he still has a huge psychological hold on the South African batsmen.