Cricketers get early lesson on hot and steamy times in UAE

RUSSELL Domingo did not forget the sunblock. It shone like wet white paint as he stepped off the team bus in Sharjah yesterday to take charge of South Africa’s first training session of their United Arab Emirates (UAE) tour to play Pakistan.

Overhead, in a mercilessly cloudless sky, the sun refused to blink. It was 1.45pm and 37°C. Dust the colour of milky tea hung in the hard-boiled air.

“When you arrive it’s always stifling, but once you’ve been here for four or five days you get used to it,” Domingo said.

No one believed him. Neither, it seems, did Domingo.

In conversation later with re- porters, who were sweating in silence around him, the coach referred to the “tough and extreme conditions”.

South Africa, who played against Pakistan in the inaugural test matches in the UAE in 2010, will reacquaint themselves with the challenges of performing to optimum levels in this environment in a 13 players-a-side, threeday tour match against Pakistan A in Sharjah starting tomorrow.

“One warm-up game is not ideal on a long tour but it’s better than nothing,” Domingo said.

The first of two tests starts in Abu Dhabi on October 14. That series will be followed by five one-day internationals and two T20s.

In SA in February, the test team trounced Pakistan 3-0.

Pakistan won the only T20 that survived the weather. Although they took the one-day series to a fifth match – which they lost – the memory of the tour was of high quality and ruthlessness.

Now, 7½ months on, South Africa need to hit the ground running.

They came under starter’s orders on Saturday when they decamped to that rare thing in these parts – a bar located thanks to Allan Donald’s local knowledge – to watch the Springboks play.

Meanwhile, Jacques Kallis, whose last imperious wield of a bat came in an Indian Premier League match on May 19, is “fresh” to go, says Domingo.

ý Pakistan team change: P 18