All players are welcome to help Proteas

GRAEME Smith is throwing open the doors and inviting everyone who’s interested to put up their hands for selection for the Proteas T20 World Cup squad.

That tournament takes place in Australia later this year and Cricket SA’s interim Director of Cricket wants to use the next few months to assess players and tactics. In doing so he’s inviting all those who want to play – including players with Kolpak contracts – to avail themselves for selection.

“We as Cricket South Africa are looking to solidify our options for the Proteas T20 World Cup squad from the outbound Sri Lanka tour onwards,” Smith said at the weekend.

“We will have about 14 matches in hand between then and the T20 World Cup and we’ll begin working on ensuring we have the right combinations and options going into the tournament.”

Last month Smith said he was open to widening the selection net to try and catch as many players as possible, including what he at that stage described as “free agents”. He drew comparisons with the West Indies teams of recent years, which have successfully incorporated players into their squads for ICC events even when they haven’t had full time contracts with the Board in that region.

That could mean if the likes of Rilee Rossouw and Kyle Abbott – currently contracted to Hampshire in the UK – want to, they can avail themselves for selection, from June onwards.

South Africa has a busy schedule over the next few months with series against England this week, Australia next week, Sri Lanka in June and then West Indies in August ahead of the T20 World Cup. They are also due to play three One-Day Internationals in India in March, while there have also been reports about a short limited overs series in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Mark Boucher wants Faf du Plessis and Kagiso Rabada back in the South African team for the T20 International series against Australia that starts next Friday.

Both players were given time off during the One-Day series, but their absence from the T20 matches against England – the first of which will be played in East London tomorrow – caught many by surprise.

The extended break for both players is understandable given the excessive workload they have had to bear in the last 18 months. Du Plessis is in the early stages of extensive talks about his Proteas future with Smith and has stated on a number of occasions that he sees the T20 World Cup as a possible end to his international career.

He needs to get into that squad first however, and in head coach Boucher, he seems to have a strong supporter. “Faf is still one of our best T20 players,” Boucher said at the weekend, “but we feel at this point he needs a break away from the game. These guys (Du Plessis and Rabada) have been on the road and played a lot of cricket and any opportunity for a bit of a rest, we will give them that.”