da stake casino： It happened to the Waugh brothers and now it looks like the same fate will befall the Morkels: one sibling making way for the other to make his Test debut
Brydon Coverdale in Cape Town17-Mar-2009
South African coach Mickey Arthur believes the inclusion of Albie Morkel will add more depth to the batting•Getty Images
It happened to the Waugh brothers and now it looks like the same fatewill befall the Morkels: one sibling making way for the other to makehis Test debut. Albie Morkel is an almost certain starter forThursday’s third Test in Cape Town after his brother Morne was axedand the South Africans would love it if he burst onto the Test sceneas successfully as Mark Waugh, who made a century on debut when he wasgiven a game at the expense of his brother Steve.The coach Mickey Arthur is the man who generally picks South Africa’sstarting XI from the squad he has been given, and he said on Tuesdaythat Morkel was set to get the nod ahead of the other uncapped fastbowler, Wayne Parnell. But after Arthur and the convenor of selectorsMike Procter clashed on the JP Duminy-Ashwell Prince selection issuelast month, the coach was hesitant to give any firm guarantees.”I’ve got to discuss that with Proccy [Procter] first but I do think that in alllikelihood Albie will start,” Arthur said. “It gives us a bit morebatting depth, but we have to get 20 wickets. His pace in Australia wasdecent. He seems to be getting his pace up and he’s found that nipagain. But what he’s also done is he’s bowled the length that wehaven’t been able to do against the Australians.”We’ve been a little bit too short, we’ve been a little bit too full.We haven’t been able to hit that in-between length. Albie possessesthat ability and can swing the ball back intothe left-hander, one of the areas we identified against both [Marcus]North and [Phillip] Hughes and haven’t been able to exploit.”While there will be one change to South Africa’s attack, there will beat least two alterations to their top order with Ashwell Prince andImraan Khan surprisingly chosen to open as replacements for theinjured Graeme Smith and the demoted Neil McKenzie. It’s a scenariothat has divided South African cricket circles as Prince is aspecialist No. 5 and Khan, though currently in form, has until thisseason struggled to make his name at domestic level.One of the major talking points has been the insistence of Procter andArthur that the men in the No. 3 to No. 6 positions – Hashim Amla,Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy – remain firmly in theirfamiliar roles rather than being promoted to open. Arthur said it wasalways his preference to choose the country’s six best batsmen andworry about the order later.”They weren’t consulted, I don’t think it’s their decision,” Arthursaid when asked why none of the established middle-order men hadvolunteered to open. “I think three, four, five and six have been verysuccessful. The opportunity to arise is at the top of the order. I’mvery conscious of having our six best players … batting,irrespective of what the order is going to be. One to six we can sortout later.”But while the South Africans are running out of time to rediscovertheir cohesion, the Australians are wary of the wounded hosts. MichaelHussey said it would be a mistake to assume that a seemingly confusedSouth Africa would equate to a weak South Africa.”I think back to when we played against India in Australia,” Husseysaid. “In Sydney there were similar sort of talk. We were two-nil upin the series, there was a lot of controversy going around and it sortof pulled their team together a bit tighter. We’ll do our strongpreparation on their new players coming in and make sure we have goodplans against them … but we can’t really afford to take our eye offus and focus too much on their camp.”Australia have their own selection issues to contend with in the next24 hours. The Newlands pitch is sporting some bare patches at bothends and will certainly provide assistance for spinners, so theuncapped legspinner Bryce McGain is likely to feature heavily indiscussions before the team is confirmed on Wednesday afternoon.