Will the real Kyle Abbott please stand up
CRICKET writer Martin Johnson once said the 1986/87 England touring side to Australia had one simple problem: “They couldn’t bat, couldn’t bowl and couldn’t field.” Could the same be said of the touring Sri Lankans who have been caned by 206 and 282 runs in two tests? Judging from those lopsided results, that has to be the case but it would be a simplistic conclusion that needs to be expanded. There have been times when Sri Lanka have bowled well; one example being the first two sessions of the second test when South Africa found themselves at 66/3 and 169/5 before salvage jobs by Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock helped the Proteas to a match-winning total of 392 all out. The pace provided by Lahiru Kumara and the control from Suranga Lakmal in conditions similar to a humid Lord’s morning asked questions of South Africa’s batting temperament and their ability to get through difficult batting conditions. With Angelo Mathews also providing a modicum of control with his medium pacers, it’s easy to see that Sri Lanka are able to hold their own in the first innings when the conditions allow them to, before their batsmen let them down massively. The efficiency of the Sri Lankan PACEY: Lahiru Kumara been not sure [of his place in the team] for a very long time.
“Possibly inside he just wants to be sure. We know Kyle and we respect him for what he’s done for us as a team‚ and I respect his decision. I don’t agree with it but I respect it.”
Du Plessis will have to find a way to replace Abbott by Thursday‚ when the third test starts at the Wanderers.
The Knights’ Duanne Olivier‚ the leading wicket-taker in franchise first-class cricket this season‚ has taken Abbott’s place in the squad.
Wayne Parnell could also play at the Wanderers‚ where an allpace attack would afford South Africa the chance to gauge their form.
In February, South Africa travel to New Zealand for a Twenty20‚ five one-day internationals and three tests. Then it’s off to England for three onedayers‚ the Champions Trophy‚ three Twenty20s and four tests.
Abbott has become an integral part of an attack that has overcome the loss to injury of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
Now that balance has been destroyed.
“He’s a massive loss‚” Du Plessis said. “With the injury to Dale he stepped in‚ and he was deserving of his chance.
“He waited for a long time to get it. And then he stepped into it like it was his own forever.”
Forever is a long time; longer than it will take to recover from this and longer than the suits should need to figure out how to stop players from leaving. At least‚ we hope so. — TMG Sport bowling attack has to be down to Graham Ford’s knowledge of local conditions and batsmen.
Some of the dismissals, the lines of attack to specific batsmen, especially the containment of out-of-form Hashim Amla, has Ford’s intelligentsia written all over it.
But the inability to provide two centres of pressure, especially when Nuwan Pradeep is bowling, has given South Africa an escape avenue.
The pressure release and lack of turn has also negated the excellent Rangana Herath, even though the chunky left-arm spinner has kept the run-rate in check.
It’s a pity the hard work has not been reciprocated by the batsmen, who have not delivered even though the surfaces in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town have not been overly difficult to bat on.
If the visitors had been subjected to green tops, their struggles would have been excused but batsmen of the quality of Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya da Silva and Dinesh Chandimal could have and should have adapted much better after two tests, but that hasn’t been the case.
Mendis in particular has been a big disappointment, especially after his success in England in adverse conditions.
He was able to tame James Anderson in England, which makes his inability to adapt to South Africa more galling.
While batting in Sri Lanka, England and South Africa requires different skills, any international cricket side worth their salt has to have the ability to cope with different conditions.
Chandimal and Mendis displayed considerable grit and flair to succeed in any country but their contributions have been disappointing.
It left Mathews with the burden and he hasn’t kicked on in a manner that’s been expected of him.
While Thursday’s third test at the Wanderers is a dead rubber, there’s the matter of having to salvage some pride and bat better. KOLPAK RECRUIT: Fast bowler Kyle Abbott is no longer available to the Proteas WHO, really, is Kyle Abbott?
Is he the guy who sounded fully committed to South Africa’s cause at St George’s Park or the guy who, less than a week later at Newlands, and only because he had been outed in the media, admitted he had signed a Kolpak deal five months previously?
Is he the poor bastard who was almost in tears as he read a statement confirming his international retirement, or the smug bastard who a minute or two after that was asking reporters if they were going to buy groceries for him?
Hopefully the real Kyle Abbott stands up in Hampshire. Whoever he is, his new employers deserve no more and no less.
There is, as we know by now, anger on all sides of the Abbott equation.
Many South Africans — this columnist among them — feel that Abbott has lied to them, taken them for fools, maybe because we were dumb enough to believe that what he said in Port Elizabeth was the sincere truth.
Others are angry at a system that, they say, chases away young, white talent even as it champions its obsession with balancing the racial scorebooks.
The system itself is de moer in: with Abbott, with Rilee Rossouw — who has also signed a Kolpak contract with Hampshire — with people who refuse to understand that the pound is exponentially stronger than the rand, and with anyone who says it has done clumsy, stupid things in the name of transformation. We’re all wrong. Here’s why. This sorry saga isn’t rooted in the events of Newlands on Thursday, or St George’s Park
There is, as we know by now, anger on all sides of the Abbott equation
the previous Friday, or Eden Park in Auckland on March 24 2015 — when the suits were arrogant enough to order Abbott’s axing from the team that played the World Cup semifinal.
Instead, we need to go back to June 29 1991, when the United Cricket Board was formed and unity in cricket in this country was proclaimed.
Racial unity, that is. Nobody seemed too fussed about bringing the various factions closer in economic or geographic terms to at least try to ensure that the quality of opportunities would be fairly shared.
If you were a black South African with both eyes open on June 29 1991 you would have struggled to avoid the conclusion that whites had agreed to unity to pave the way for their return to international cricket.
And it was their return. It will be 26 years this June that unity was established, apparently guaranteeing justice for all.
But, if South African cricket was a zebra with its stripes representing the races, that zebra would be all white save for one black stripe.
All the while, black authority and influence has been growing in wider society, which includes Cricket South Africa’s boardroom even though the team has remained problematically pale.
But whites still have more than their fair share financially, which they can use to set themselves up in cricket more securely than many blacks.
Hence the option for players who, if international cricket doesn’t work out for them, have the resources to revert to plan B. Or should that be plan K?
That choice is probably more attractive because a relatively transformed South African team is doing, for some, the unthinkable: winning.
Push has come to shove for a game that has talked about transformation a lot more than it has actually transformed.
So why the surprise that players of means who get less game time because others of whatever race are picked ahead of them are looking to jump ship?
Goodbye, Kyle Abbott. Whoever you are.