The Proteas - Our Team!

BigAl-sa said:
A bit OT, I'm quite interested as to why they have to be called "Proteas". Why can't they just be the SA team? All the other teams are referred to by their country's name??
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It was done to "rid" cricket of the "stigma" of the Springbok name.
 
MickeyD said:
It was done to "rid" cricket of the "stigma" of the Springbok name.
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The Proteas may have taken it out of the dark ages to a certain extent, but Majola et al took it back there :p

Also, development just doesn't feel like it is happening and/or effective :(
 
MickeyD said:
It was done to "rid" cricket of the "stigma" of the Springbok name.
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It's weird, remember a time when most people (including me) were like "Proteas?! Never gonna call them that" but now many, if not most, people do.
 
The England series can't come fast enough for me, pity it wasn't the 5 test one they so publicly promised in 2010. Marquee series se voet apparently.

I hope SABC don't bother to send commentators over there for radio anymore, but wait, they're more likely to do that ridiculous commentary over TV thing from the Joburg studio thing. Maybe if they sent Natalie Germanos & Neil Manthorp over it'll be acceptable, TMS is great hopefully we can get some of that.
 
Philander took 7 wickets on debut for Somerset, 5 in the first innings.

I'm not too sure on his stint in County Cricket tho. On the one hand he gains experience of the conditions for later in the year which is a massive plus; on the other hand he could be found out. 51 wickets in 7 tests? Someone pinch me! Will just have to play the waiting game i guess...

Also, English commentators seem to think they have the best seaming attack in the world. As if Anderson can be compared to Steyn. Lolworthy!

EDIT: Evidence that Anderson has Steyn-themed pyjamas. courtesy of cricinfo:
...
Fortunes kept oscillating in the final overs, but for most periods in the chase, the Chargers were in control. Much of the credit should go to Steyn, who ran in with the same vigour as he does for South Africa. He defeated the best hitters in the Mumbai line-up with raw pace and fizzy bounce, nipping out three wickets for just 12 runs. He took 2 for 6 in his first spell, conceded just two off his next over and only five off his final over. In hindsight, Sangakkara will feel he should have kept him for the final over.

Steyn gave the Chargers the early advantage by plucking a return catch in his follow-through to get rid of T Suman. The fourth over, a wicket-maiden from Steyn, was the spectacle of the evening. He ran in high on adrenaline and had his fellow countryman Richard Levi all at sea with raw pace. He targeted the stumps, forced Levi to stab at deliveries cramping him for room, foxed him with a slower one that sneaked past the outside edge and the stumps, bounced him, but saved his best delivery for the last. Levi played all around a fiery full ball that knocked back his middle stump.
...
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3/12 in a T20, awesome! Also, Levi made a 50 in the previous game.
 
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MickeyD said:
It depends on how big a squad they will be taking to England...

Will they go for 3 separate squads?
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I hope they do. It gives the young guns a nice run.

DrYes said:
whats the latest with Amlas groin surgery.
will he still be able to open the batting as well as play cricket as an opener.
:p
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ROFL :D

I can not wait to see Steyn, Philander and Morkel bowl in England.

I wonder if we will play a 4th seamer in the place of Tahir if the deck is nice and green?
 
I somehow think that the toss will have a major impact in most of the games.

Overcast cloudy conditions will suit any bowling unit... And bright sunny skies are much easier to bat on !

A team can easily have best of both worlds... Bowling and batting under better conditions than the other team...


On paper again ... Its easily to see that SA should be able to beat the Poms... But with uncertain weather conditions and a blind umpire anything could happen...
 
SinghDude said:
On paper again ... Its easily to see that SA should be able to beat the Poms... But with uncertain weather conditions and a blind umpire anything could happen...
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I think on paper the Poms are favourite. They have done well in their backyard in recent times and the South African top order can be very fragile at the best of times. On paper, English conditions should suit both teams. We struggled to dislodge the Poms here when we had them against the ropes for most of the series.
 
R13... said:
I think on paper the Poms are favourite. They have done well in their backyard in recent times and the South African top order can be very fragile at the best of times. On paper, English conditions should suit both teams. We struggled to dislodge the Poms here when we had them against the ropes for most of the series.
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Somebody will pull through at the top. At least 4 of them average close to, or exceed 50, and you don't get that by being fragile. Besides, Biff has pretty much made the poms his bunny :D
 
R13... said:
I think on paper the Poms are favourite. They have done well in their backyard in recent times and the South African top order can be very fragile at the best of times. On paper, English conditions should suit both teams. We struggled to dislodge the Poms here when we had them against the ropes for most of the series.
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Well at least we are the best traveling side for the last two years :D
 
Faf is maturing well in the shorter formats of the game. Wonder if / when he will become mature enough for test cricket.

Good to see both him an Duminey coming through the ranks as Kallis will not be there forever and we will need someone to fill at least 75% of his size 23 boots in the batting lineup.
 
tonyvr said:
I see that Somerset have already managed to injure Philander!

Sixth paragraph onwards
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"South Africa have little to fear. While Philander has a variety of niggles, none of them are thought to be serious. Somerset rested him from this game after discussions with Cricket South Africa and expect him to be available for next week's Championship match against Lancashire. They might even have fielded him here had the weather been warmer.

"We don't want to take any risk with him," Brian Rose, Somerset's director of cricket told ESPNcricinfo. "There was a danger that he could play, worsen the injury, and then go home and not be available for us again.

"He has played two matches in very cold weather and, with the forecast suggesting we were going to have more cold weather, I decided not to risk him. We've been liaising closely with Cricket South Africa ever since he arrived and, as things stand, he should be fine for next week."

I am happy that they are communicating with CSA.

Would be tragic if Philander could not play in the tests.
 
Devill said:

"South Africa have little to fear. While Philander has a variety of niggles, none of them are thought to be serious. Somerset rested him from this game after discussions with Cricket South Africa and expect him to be available for next week's Championship match against Lancashire. They might even have fielded him here had the weather been warmer.

"We don't want to take any risk with him," Brian Rose, Somerset's director of cricket told ESPNcricinfo. "There was a danger that he could play, worsen the injury, and then go home and not be available for us again.

"He has played two matches in very cold weather and, with the forecast suggesting we were going to have more cold weather, I decided not to risk him. We've been liaising closely with Cricket South Africa ever since he arrived and, as things stand, he should be fine for next week."

I am happy that they are communicating with CSA.

Would be tragic if Philander could not play in the tests.
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Maybe that's their plan.
 
Extract... (read the entire comment - interesting!)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cr...up-ahead-of-England-series-is-a-disgrace.html

Even for your forgetting-his-impartiality-for-a-moment columnist, author of a soon-to-be-published book detailing England’s rise from bottom of the Test rankings in 1999 (below even Zimbabwe) to the top last summer.

It would have just been so English to have fallen so swiftly from the top of the tree. But the rankings could hardly have been termed harsh had that happened. England lost four consecutive Tests, for goodness’ sake.

They are good, but not as good as some believed last summer. Comparisons with the great teams of Australia and the West Indies were, quite frankly, fatuous.

There were always two elephants in the room: spin and South Africa. England were nearly trampled to death by the former last winter. And we all know that the African elephant is bigger than the Asian. Can England survive this summer?

First comes a three-Test series against the West Indies, but, however many Tests England win there, should they lose the three-Test series to the South Africans, they will relinquish their No 1 ranking.

Not that some counties care. South Africa’s opener Alviro Petersen is readying himself for the series at Essex, their No 6 Jacques Rudolph is at Surrey and their sensational seamer Vernon Philander is at Somerset. It is a disgrace.

The apologists will point to the Australian Phil Hughes’ stint at Middlesex before the 2009 Ashes. He scored bucket loads, and was then unpicked swiftly in the Tests, but there was more a reflection of the mediocrity of the county attacks in not detecting some horrible technical flaws more than anything else.

It shouldn’t be happening, but, in a way, I can see why the counties do it. There are so few quality overseas players available now.

The balance between showing ambition to one’s members and serving the national cause is tricky. There is an answer, proposed here before: ban all overseas players from the County Championship. They are not worth the effort or the money any more.

There will be plenty of quality in the competition from next week anyway, with Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell playing for Middlesex and Warwickshire respectively. That they are appearing before some other England colleagues is only right and proper. They need some runs, and it is not as if they played an awful lot last winter.

Not that it will be easy, though. With the season having begun preposterously early, the ball has been darting around like a child on Sunny Delight.

But then it won’t be an easy summer. Kemar Roach and Fidel Edwards will bowl with pace and hostility for the West Indies. For South Africa Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Philander and Marchant de Lange will all do the same, and much more.
 
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