Cricket: The mysteries of an opening test strip

By RICHARD BOOCK

Gary Kirsten wasn't kidding when he singled out flexibility as the key component in tomorrow's first test against New Zealand.

Only midway through a tour brimming with unreadable pitches and cyclonic weather, the South Africans arrived in Hamilton yesterday to discover that - surprise, surprise - the biggest mystery in town was the test surface.

Normally well-grassed and agreeable to the pacemen, this season's test pitch looks bare enough to encourage the spinners but soft enough to hold a seam, leaving both camps in a dilemma over their likely line-ups.

Kirsten, who toured New Zealand in 1994-95 and 1998-99, said he was looking forward to reacquainting himself with the challenge.

"The guys really enjoy coming here, and it's a matter of adapting to the conditions just like you have to anywhere in the world," said Kirsten, possibly in his last year of international cricket, having already given up playing the shorter game,

"That's the important thing heading into the tests, the ability to adapt. Apart from that it's a great country to tour, one of the better ones."

South Africa's most capped test cricketer with 98 appearances, Kirsten will become the first Protea to reach the 100-mark next week in Auckland, having already scored 7039 runs at 45.12, including 20 centuries.

He was also one of their most successful one-day players, averaging more than 40 in 185 appearances, and his commonsense approach was sorely missed in the early stages of South Africa's tour.

Kirsten's one-day career ended in disappointment with a loss to Sri Lanka, but he remains comfortable with the decision he made and is primed for the tests.

However, the most prolific run-scorer in South African test history hinted at a possible retirement at the end of the year, so that he could devote more time to his wife Deborah and their three-month-old son.

Now batting down the order after Graeme Smith's phenomenal start as an opener, Kirsten was in no doubt about the challenge provided by New Zealand, and was also acutely aware of the dissatisfaction back home.

"The South African public is the same as any other when their team's not doing well.

"They tend to get a bit uptight and the media lash in, so it's up to the team to turn that around." As for his enforced lay-off from the one-day game, he said if anything, the move helped his test prospects, in that he was able to spend time working on specific areas of his game, and was sharper of mind.

"You miss out on some game time, but that also gives you the chance to get mentally fresh.

"I watched the one-dayers to see the New Zealand bowlers and as usual they've proved a worthy unit. There's some good players there, there's some match-winners."

One of those is allrounder Chris Cairns, who will finally play his first test match against South Africa following injuries in all three previous series.


Cairns requires only three more wickets and 136 runs to become just the sixth cricketer in history to score 3000 runs and take 200 wickets.

The only other players to have achieved the feat are Sir Garfield Sobers (West Indies), Kapil Dev (India), Imran Khan (Pakistan), Ian Botham (England) and Sir Richard Hadlee (New Zealand).