Gale harshly treated

There was all that stuff written about how Andrew Gale wasn't allowed to lift the County Championship trophy because of his various disciplinary issues, so I assumed he'd done something serious and didn't really think more about it.   It turns out his exchange with Ashwell Prince was as follows (as reported by The Telegraph):

Gale moved himself in the field in an attempt to squeeze in one further over. He moved closer to Prince who is alleged to have told him to “f*** off back to cover point.” Gale responded by saying “Well you can f*** off back to your own country you Kolpak f*****.

Calling someone a Kolpak is not racist.   It's just not, no matter how some over paid lawyer may argue it.   If as an Englishman I was called a f****** pommie bastard, I wouldn't consider it rude in any way....it's a statement of fact that I'm a pom.   It's a slang description rather than an insult and if I played cricket in Australia I would expect a bit of "f*** o** back to England" type conversations.   Ashwell Prince is indeed a Kolpak as he's South African and represented South Africa in 66 Test matches.

Apparently the umpires reported the "incident" which makes me assume it was the worst thing said in the whole game (which would seem incredibly unlikely).   I'm all for umpires cracking down on sledging if they want to but at the time on the pitch and on all abusive sledging, not just arbitrary interjections/reports.

Once again though, by getting into the slanging match, Gale made it less likely he'd get the wicket he was looking for.   As I've discussed before about sledging, why say things that will make the batsman all the more determined not to get out?

I'm never surprised by strange legal rulings because they happen so regularly, but I hope that this isn't one of them and Gale is cleared of using racist language.   If he is guilty of using abusive language then of course Prince is too but use of a swear word is not something that can justifiably called abuse unless the cricketing authorities make that clear at the start of the season and are consistent in taking action every single time a swear word is used (which will never happen).

What a sorry end to the season for the ECB.

Sreesanth

I've always wondered what made Sreesanth an international bowler as when I've watched him he's always seemed like someone who doesn't move it much and who isn't quick by international standards. So cannon-fodder then.

But today, watching him against the South African's, was the first time I've seen what Gary Kirsten and the Indian selectors obviously see in him. The balls he bowled to Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher to get rid of them in consecutive balls were brilliant and if it wasn't for his childish antics, he could almost become a bowler I'd admire. I'd always thought he lacked talent and character....perhaps there's only one of those that Gary Kirsten has to work on.

South African Changes

I just thought I'd add to a previous post regarding the South African changes. I too am surprised McKenzie was dropped, especially given that Smith will be out. Having dropped him, however, I would not have opened with Prince. Why not bring de Villiers up to open (he's done it before) or move Amla and Kallis up one slot each. As for Morkel, he is undoubtedly talented, but his performances in the last two tests certainly warranted him being dropped. He has just been so lethargic. His bowling has lacked energy, he is a poor mover in the field, and he seems to disengage his brain whenever he picks up a bat.

South Africa reverse captaincy decision

Just 24 hours after I posted about Ashwell Prince coming from outside the starting XI to captain South Africa in the next Test because of Graeme Smith's injury, it seems the board over in SA have changed their minds. They now want Jaques Kallis to captain the side.

I can't think of any possible justification for this - either it was a massive mistake originally, or it was a massive mistake subsequently....it seems that South Africa have the same board problems as we have in England! It would be interesting to know what triggered the change of mind - perhaps there was a media outcry in South Africa?

Ruthless South African selection

My gut feel is that South Africa are being overly ruthless in dropping McKenzie and Morkel following their loss in the first two Tests against Australia. Morkel is young and looked really talented when the Saffers were over here last year. But in particular I'm not sure I like the tactic of using Prince as a makeshift opener alongside a debutant in Khan. Yes, McKenzie did a great job of converting from the middle order to open the batting, but that doesn't mean that everybody can.

McKenzie averages 24.2 in the series away to Australia that South Africa won. The reason that I feel a little sorry for him is that in a series that lasts only 3 games you only get 6 innings and one hundred in that time wouldn't be a bad success rate. In the 2nd Test, McKenzie was going well on 59 not out when South Africa won the game, depriving him of the chance to complete what might have been his big innings of the tour.

In the return series in South Africa McKenzie averaged 25.5 in the first two Tests which doesn't make him the worst South Africa batsman, with Amla narrowly less than that. But if England dropped players after such a brief run of poor form then Bell, for example, would have been discarded after the 2005 Ashes. The South African selectors seem to have felt that they were rightfully the best country in the world and, riled at not making this a reality, have reacted like a school kid would when they didn't get their own way. Courtney Walsh used to say that the West Indies loved touring England because if they won the first couple of matches they found themselves playing the England 2nd XI by the end of the series and I fear the South African selection has a whiff of that. Presumably Morkel will pretty rapidly come back into the squad, but McKenzie will struggle given his age - doubly so as Graeme Smith has openly talked about that and said it will be tough for him.

So when Smith is fit again, it will be interesting to see who gets the other opening slot - it's only a minor selection point but two left-handers is not preferable to a right and left combination. If one or both of the new openers do well then it will be seen as a great decision, but it's high risk and knee jerk - those sort of decisions rarely come off. If they wanted to boost the batting, I would have considered using AB de Villiers as keeper and dropping Boucher. Considered it....and then rejected it, realising that just because South Africa lost it doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't their best team playing.

One last point of note in the South African situation is that Prince comes back into the side as captain. I wonder how many times that has happened? Somehow I doubt we'll see the same from England if Strauss gets injured, no matter how much people like me might want to see Vaughan's captaincy skills at work again.