S. Africa secret plans end up on Facebook

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Aug 19, (AP): The papers outlining secret tactics were meant to be slipped under South African cricketer Dale Steyn’s hotel room door on the eve of a game against New Zealand.

Instead, they went to the wrong room and are now there for the world - and the New Zealand players - to see after night.

Although they don’t contain any startling insights, the tactics - titled “Plan / Strategy Handouts” - outline team management’s suggestions on how Steyn and his fellow fast bowlers could get the New Zealanders out.

For one, middle-order batsman Colin Munro is susceptible to “bouncers into rib cage,” which he “doesn’t play well,” according to the South Africans.

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson “attacks” but “doesn’t pull well.” Opener Martin Guptill is “a wicket option for bouncers angling in.”

The dossier, which has “Dale Steyn” handwritten on the top, was photographed and posted on Facebook by the woman who ended up receiving it.

She wrote next to the photo: “Something tells me I wasn’t supposed to get the South African cricket teams plan/strategy for the New Zealand team batsmen and bowlers under my hotel room door.”

It’s not the first time documents with team tactics have gone astray in cricket.

In 2012, Australia’s plans for South Africa’s batsmen were leaked before their test series.

And in 2001, then-Australia coach John Buchanan put motivational notes containing excerpts from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” under the hotel room doors of his players during an Ashes series in England. departure, Mathews said: “He has worked as hard as any of us. I am sure he is determined to sign off with a hundred.”

Sangakkara will want to end an unusually barren streak at the P. Sara Oval where he has fallen for zero in each of his last three Tests, including a first-ball duck against Pakistan in June.

Indian skipper Virat Kohli, looking to level scores in his first full series as captain, said the tourists were not distracted by the hype over Sangakkara’s retirement.

“We are certainly not distracted by it,” Kohli said. “In fact, this will be more of a strange situation for Sri Lanka than us.

“We look up to Sangakkara as a great cricketer. But the emotions in the two teams will be different.”

Sangakkara scored five and 40 against the Indians in Galle, where Sri Lanka snatched a remarkable victory after seem-