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Journalism of Courage
Hey, it is time to hold your breath. Life has these days become a bit of a merry-go-round. No sooner have Sri Lanka departed for Australia and the start of the annual triangular series Down Under than Pakistan arrived for a series of five limited-overs games while India set up their pre-World Cup base in the shaky isles of New Zealand.
But that is the pace of the limited overs international circuit at present with just two months left before the start of the big event at Newlands where South Africa meet a resurgent West Indies.
The Windies have breezed their way through Bangladesh and are now taking stock of their World Cup planning, although for Marlon Samuels the tour of the Bengal delta has lifted his profile as a limited overs batsman.
One of the problems with so many LOI games being played in such a short space of time is the numerous difficulties for the coaches, captains and team physiotherapists as they do for the selectors.
The argument of whether Australia or, for that matter, any selection panel has the right to bring players from outside a nominated squad of 30 has created an eyebrow raised in query.
It is open to interpretation, of course, whether at 37 Steve Waugh is likely to be selected for one last fling. But with Ricky Pointing in charge of the Australian side, there are not going to be too many changes to a squad which is all powerful.
One of the selection puzzles doing the rounds at present is who, among the other sides, would actually get the nod to find a place in the Australian side.
Perhaps the all-round talents of South Africa’s Jacques Kallis would get him a nod; Sachin Tendulkar is another who would squeeze in and there would possibly be a battle between Harbhajan Singh and Muthiah Muralitharan for the extra spinner’s spot. But not even Shaun Pollock, who collected his 250th LOI wicket in the fifth game of the series against Sri Lanka at Goodyear Park would be considered as a likely candidate for the World Cup champions.
About the only other name likely to emerge from outside the three mentioned is Rahul Dravid. All of which means that there are some fancy contenders who are not going to make it into Aussie squad.
This being the case, suggestions that the older Waugh twin would not make the Aussie squad might surprise those who have followed his career in recent years.
He is a one of those gritty battlers from the trenches and knew what it needed to win the trophy in 1999 in England. Big on temperament, Waugh is also among the leading LOI run-scorers. Yet ignoring such talent explains the dilemma the Aussie selectors face.
It is not a matter of pinning a list of names to a dart-board and hoping the dart hitting the right name, or even case of drawing the short straw, as has happened on occasions.
It is a matter of the right balance, and you can bet that the Australian selectors would not think twice about leaving out Waugh if they felt it would create an imbalance.
What is equally interesting is how Sri Lanka, as an example, are hoping that Muralitharan will be bit for the World Cup, yet his absence has, despite their poor showing against South Africa, enabled the Sri Lanka’s selectors to strike a balance by adding the extra batsman.
Several times they found themselves wallowing amid the debris of uncertainty. Four or five wickets had fallen fairly rapidly and a score of 90 for five was not uncommon in this series.
How Sri Lanka handle the trauma of such top-order collapses is a matter of finding the right batsmen taking on the responsibility.
Aravinda de Silva, as an example has run into problems. The stroke-making wizard of the island’s 1996 World Cup glory has not found the touch needed to make his place certain.
Like Waugh, he is in danger of missing the final selection, but then so is Hashan Tillekeratne who has battled in the LOI games as well.
South Africa are still experimenting. That much is obvious from the announcement of the squad to play Pakistan in the two opening games of the Standard Bank Series which begins today.
Waqar Younis has admitted that the squad Pakistan have in South Africa may show a couple of surprise names which it will announce on December 31. Then again, so could India if all the plans on their New Zealand journey do not work according to the formula needed to find a competitive unit. So far India have flouted the ICC conditions by failing to announce their squad for the tournament and do not seem to be in too much of a hurry. Is this another stand off between the board and the ICC? It could be; for what reason is hard to imagine.
