Cometh the hour, cometh the captain

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Two weeks ago, AB de Villiers looked locked and loaded to succeed Graeme Smith as SA’s test captain. Today, when the new skipper is unveiled in Johannesburg, the shock will surge far and wide if Hashim Amla does not crack the nod.

What has happened to swing the pendulum from De Villiers – and Faf du Plessis – to Amla may never be known, but the circumstances are compelling.

“I would love to do it,” was De Villiers’ straight answer when he was asked, on May 1...