Cobras start T20 defence with away trip
THE Cape Cobras are still feeling the sting of having had to relinquish their Supersport Series title at the weekend, and will have an opportunity to make amends in the domestic T20 competition which they begin with a match against the Warriors in Port Elizabeth tomorrow (6pm start).
Cricket South Africa yesterday announced insurance company Miway as sponsor of the tournament, also naming the Impi, to be captained by Englishman Paul Collingwood, as the seventh franchise in the sixweek event.
The Cobras are defending champions in the shortest format, but will face the Warriors and the Knights away in three days without a couple of key personnel from last summer’s successful campaign.
Richard Levi and Justin Ontong’s success in domestic cricket has earned them national call-ups, so they are away in New Zealand at present. Herschelle Gibbs is playing in the Bangladesh Premier League until later this month, as is overseas signing Brad Hogg, although last season’s player of the tournament, Englishman Owais Shah, will be back to lead the batting effort in the early games.
Levi, who features only in the Proteas T20 squad for New Zealand, could be back in Cobras blue by their fifth of their 12 round-robin games (on February 26), and until then his role as attacking opener could be filled by 22-year-old Yaseen Vallie. Allister Gray and Stiaan van Zyl will also probably see action with Gibbs and Ontong away, and they will want to take advantage of the opportunity to play top T20 cricket.
On the bowling side of things, Test player Vernon Philander only departs for New Zealand at the end of February and will be available to the Cobras for the first five games. Likewise wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, with seocnd gloveman Dane Vilas, playing only as a batsman, having warmed up for the accelerated action of the T20 format with some hardhitting innings in recent fourday matches.
Elsewhere in the country franchises have bolstered their teams with overseas experience. The Lions have harnessed the fast-bowling wiles of Australian Dirk Nannes and Pakistani Sohail Tanvir, while the marquee signing must be the Dolphins’ acquisition, West Indies batting sensation Chris Gayle. The tall left-hander, is also currently occupied in the Bangladesh T20 competition.
When Levi returns, it will be interesting to see how he shapes up aaginst Gayle – it was interesting to note that the Cape man did not secure an Indian Premier League contract in the recent auction ahead of this year’s competition.
The Impi, to be coached by former SA assistant coach Vincent Barnes (with Paul Adams as his assistant), has also signed South African-born Dutch star Ryan ten Doeschate. The seventh franchise, to be backed by Indian businessmen, will be allowed to sign two more overseas players, who are likely to come from the Asian sub-continent.