Telford Vice's Blog, page 381

SA’s most reliable death bowler? Not who you might think …

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

SA win one-day internationals more often when Rory Kleinveldt features in their death bowling partnership. However, Kleinveldt has not been selected for the three ODIs SA will play in Sri Lanka next month as the focus sharpens on preparations for next year’s World Cup.

The Proteas have emerged victorious 80% of the time when Kleinveldt has been entrusted with ball in either of the last two overs of the opposition’s innings, regardless of which team is batt...

All that glitters is not cricket – it’s football

http://www.GOcricket.com – http://www.gocricket.com/All-that-glitters-is-not-cricket–its-football/Telford-Vice/columnshow/36766573.cms

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

There is, you may have heard, some sort of kickabout going on in Brazil. It is quite important, apparently. People in several countries are bothering to watch it on television at strange hours, and they say there is a fair amount of prestige and money involved.

Here in South Africa, we know how the Brazilians feel. More or less – our na...

Kallis question key as SA keep eye on World Cup prize

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

To pick Jacques Kallis or not to pick Jacques Kallis – eight months before SA start their World Cup campaign, that is already the question.

“Jacques has had a great career, but he won’t want it to end without winning an International Cricket Council tournament,” former SA fast bowler Mfuneko Ngam said yesterday.

“If it happens at the World Cup, he can retire in peace. If it doesn’t happen, it will always haunt him.

“So, if he’s in good shape, I would pick him...

SA cricket’s ‘toughen up or give up’ culture changing

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Luke Pomersbach is the latest in a lengthening line of cricketers who have been forced out of the game by mental illness. But there is a difference this time – Pomersbach is Australian.

Usually, cricket’s victims of stress, anxiety and depression are English, from Steve Harmison to Marcus Trescothick to Ashley Giles to Jonathan Trott.

If they are not English, they have other problems. Pomersbach has had serious brushes with the law and New Zealand’s Lou Vinc...

Kallis will put country before club

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

South Africans who have an eye on their team’s preparations for the World Cup would have been alarmed to discover yesterday that Jacques Kallis had been signed by the Sydney Thunder to play in the Big Bash League (BBL) for the next two seasons.

The BBL fixtures have not yet been released, but last season the tournament ran from December 20 to February 7. If it follows a similar schedule next summer it would clash with SA’s last five one-day internationals –...

SA players unscathed by IPL injuries

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Hearts would have been in throats in April when Marchant de Lange took his strapping but fragile self off to the Indian Premier League (IPL) to play for the Mumbai Indians.

However, De Lange has returned home with all 2.01 metres of him in one piece. Or, as he said yesterday, “perfectly”.

Happily, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, David Miller, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and Imran Tahir, all of them central to SA’s plans for next season, have...

Shame on Sharma, shame on cricket, shame on us

http://www.GOcricket.com -http://www.gocricket.com/Shame-on-Roh...

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

If Rohit Sharma believes what he has been quoted as saying, that “critics are actually like girlfriends; they never stop thinking about you”, then cricket has failed society as much as society has failed cricket.

Here in South Africa, where the game has been a vehicle both for racial division and for unity, we know a few things about politics and spo...

Why alcohol’s Amla connection will help his captaincy

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Hashim Amla does not drink alcohol and those who indulge too freely have no chance of cutting it in the increasingly athletic world of cricket, but Amla and alcoholics have more in common than they think.

That connection should help Amla make a success of his new position as SA’s test captain.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference,” is a prayer written by an...

Amla’s challenge: tell us about yourself, skipper …

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

That Hashim Amla has a Wikipedia page might raise the eyebrows of those who think of him as an intensely private man. They should put their surprise on hold.

The content on the page amounts to 1921 words. Just 48 of them deal with Amla’s personal life, and 26 of those are spent on the fact that his older brother, Ahmed, also played cricket to a high standard.

Amla himself is reduced to 22 words in a document of almost 2000. There is no mention of his wife a...

Amla’s elevation means SA sport is not quite so awkward a shade of pale

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

For 18 minutes this week, a roomful of sportminded South Africans managed not to mention the war; that smouldering unhappiness over the racial imbalance in teams playing at the higher levels of games like cricket and rugby. Mostly, these teams are an awkward shade of pale – even when they purport to represent a nation that is more than 90% black.

The occasion was the unveiling of Hashim Amla as the captain of SA’s test cricket team. He is the first player...