We're playing a warm-up game at Potch, not Benoni.

Yes Punter is a bit of a hypocrite regarding his comments concerning the IPL considering he took the cash and ran. Now he's saying we should be all following the pure form of the game - test cricket. Yet when the purists denounced his team's behaviour after the Indian series last summer he complained that the so-called purists are old fuddy duddies.

ajoosub why would people, least of all fellow cricketers be jealous of vainglorious Shoaib? He's facing a five year ban and his career figures aren't that stunning.

Should Warne and the fat skipper go home due to the blasts?

Shoaib's celebrations are way too full of histrionics. I wish he would just disappear from international cricket. He's a boring cynosure who's had one controversy too many.

Saman, if Marsh had been a South African he'd be a seasoned international by now; he's just starved of opportunities. Now he's strutting his stuff he's displaying his rare wares.

Marsh is already better than the fat captain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Samuels appears to be in big trouble regarding the bookie scandal.

Marsh is already better than any Saffer. Did you see him destroy Steyn?

Misbah should be playing more but the problem is the four internationals rule. Why do franchises bother contracting so many when some won't get a gig? Every match a worthy player is left out. Dimi was unlucky not to get a go earlier, especially at the expense of the fat skipper. Is Warnie too scared to drop the Porky Protea?

Yes Prophet, Watson is going to the Windies for the one day matches. He's also run foul of the selectors due to extra-curricula issues but seems to be focussed on cricket now.

Shane Watson is a gun. Would get a game for any other country. Just a testament to the extraordinary depth of Australia.

Now editor, you're meant to be a proper editor and I'm sure you're literate so how about eliminating tacky errors. The spellos can stay in case they're intentional so you don't change the integrity of the post but obvious typos can be tidied up. Your humour is not funny!!!

Editor why don't you edit OBVIOUS typos?

I agree editor that van der Wath is now beyond a future with the Proteas but I just wondered if he had been treated somewhat harshly by selectors. I also find him sexy. I didn't intend for you to consider Marsh better than Kallis, more that he's providing superior value for money in this form of the game. I don't think Kallis is a wise investment. I believe the franchise owner was seduced by his test figures and the fact that he bowls but didn't really apply T20 thnking to the equation.

Will Harmison retire now that he's been overlooked for the first two tests? What do Saffas think of Johannes van der Wath? I always rated him and thought he was worth more of a go. Sean Marsh is outbatting the pretenders from some of the other nations. Eat your heart out Kallis.

It obviously should have been Warne or the porky Protea? BTW, anyone else think that the fat skipper is being very obsequious to impress the great Aussie leg-spinner??

438 ask the cricket world who they prefer - Warne and your fat captain? It will overwhelmingly be in favour of the former.

Prophet egregious is in common usage but the fermez phrase was a French touch to respond to Saman's little indulgence in the romantic language. Enigma, while one might argue that Arrogant Oz's comments are inflammatory and represent a value judgement on the conduct and influence of the BCCI and attendant Indian corporation involvement, they cannot be construed as racist. One could quite equally apply the same principles and accusations to Kerry Packer and his World Series circus.

Arrogant oz, again you've been a tad condescending. As I alluded to in another post, some of the cricket 'purists' and connoisseurs of test cricket are happy to indulge in some transient entertainment to satisfy their appetite for cricket - maybe whet it for the imminent England/NZ clashes in the respected format of the game. While T20 can be a raffle, it also does require skill to be able to excecute both the batting and bowling disciplines. Interesting how bona fide test players such as Kallis and Dravid have found the transition to this truncated game difficult while others have demonstrated their flexibility and the fact that their skills are transferable. I don't think T20 is some ephemeral fad either; it's here to stay!!

Saman I've actually studied French and spoke it when I was in Morocco so French is fine by me. If we're being pedantic, English required a capital letter. Methinks you're being a tad petulant over the genetics discussion and I believe you've slightly misunderstood the point in any case. Back on the cricket, another win to the master coach Warnie. I notice the fat skipper's obviously not travelling well as the soapbox has to stoop to congratulate him on his ability to keep his mouth shut. Wow, that's a good effort from the porky Protea in the IPL, his past gaffes with his unattractive mouth have been so egregious that he now gains brownie points for adhering to the old fermez la bouche command.

Saman, I didn't realise incoherencies was a world so you better explain it to me. Arrogant OZ I basically agree with your sentiments regarding T20 but it's a bit harsh to make value judgements in respect of those who watch it. Many might be connoisseurs of test cricket as well who appreciate a little transient entertainment in between tests. Last time I checked there was no test cricket being played atm.

Sachin was not out when he got LBW'd by McGrath; that was an umpiring error. Face it, the fat skipper didn't have a clue what went on. It just underlined the difference between he and his erstwhile skipper Pollock. One is a great cricketer and human being; we know about the other.

I agree Saman about the fat skipper being genetically inferior. Only a born loser could have gone out the way he did. He didn't even know he was dismissed - he didn't even know how he was dismissed And this corpulent clueless **** will be expected to lead a team to defeat the United Nations in England and the rampaging Aussies. Time SA found a real captain. Anyway there are a lot of lowish scores in the IPL so it's not exclusively a batsman's game.

What I can't understand re. the IPL is why franchises want to recruit more players, and average ones like Saj at that. Already many internationals are being left out because of the four aliens rule and many of them are not suited to T20 anyway. Some of the locals are more attuned to the biff and bash. That's what makes me chuckle re. the likes of Vaughan miffed at missing the party. He's not renowned for big hitting in ODIs so why would franchises want him for T20. Test suited players like Kallis and Dravid are already being exposed as unsuitable. The main difference between some of the Indians and the internationals is the generally much higher standard of fielding displayed by the imports.

Well ed. you said it best when confessing to predicting the success of the Royals; you believe it will come on the back of Warne's determination but moreover the Protea captain's ample guts. I think the Punjab team look all right and still expect the Daredevils to have a say as they're quite well balanced. Regardless though of current form, T20 can end up as some sort of lottery depending on the toss and conditions. A team in trouble early in this format generally doesn't have the time and overs to extricate themselves from a sticky situation.

The Windies have declined for various reasons, none of them genetically related. Ever since technology and television have infiltrated their society to a greater degree they've been seduced by American sports such as basketball and large numbers who hitherto would have been the Caribbean's fast bowlers have flocked to seek 'greener' pastures where the money was on offer. The Texan billionaire investing in Windies cricket might now alleviate that to some degree. The Windies have always disproportionately produced champions for their relatively small overall population (most islands are well under one million in total) but have also been beset by administrative problems. In the words of luminaries such as Clive Lloyd, they went to sleep at the wheel during their acme and have never recovered. While Australia set up the first cricket academy in response to its mid 80s decline, the Windies and some other nations suffered from inertia and the Caribbean kings thought the production line would never cease. Only now the multiple problems are being addressed and we're seeing a gradual, albeit stuttering awakening of a giant of yore. Because of their low population they will always rely on producing outstanding talent to carry their teams though. I agree with Pretorian Pom in that there's probably residual racism against non-whites and the country has been slow to react to transformation but when I was there I also saw evidence of racism against whites. Maybe such an overt transformation policy at the highest level (which to many other nations) smacks of reverse discrimination means that the white schools who see themselves as the last entrenched bastions of an erstwhile structure means that they are especially intransigent on the matter. Perhaps transformation needs to be implemented differently. I don't condone what Bush et al did in Iraq but don''t compare him with Mugabe.

Saman, I used Zimbabwe as an exception because it, like other African nations, seems to be ruled by corruption and violence as opposed to democratic principles. No matter how hopeless or disliked Bush et al are as leaders, they can't be compared to the murderous dictator Mugabe. And just on the cricket, I've said all along that transformation in cricket in SA needs to start at grassroots level and not be implemented at the top. As it is, they already freeze out a lot of good white talent by enforcing quotas at school, as well as at provincial level. To date this policy hasn't born fruit and has caused a lot of angst and resulted in players such as the wonderful KP defecting to England. Saffers currently dominate the county scene. Blame the ANC though, this government is surely responsible for ensuring that the young non-whites receive coaching assistance and can be properly resourced wherever feasible. I've read widely on what happens to financing of programs and it seems a lot of money simply 'disappears'. For eg. multi-billions are collected in road tolls yet only a fraction ever sees the light of day. And one of your cricket administrators was charged with impropriety and embezzlement regarding handling of funds a few years ago. We won't even get started on Zimbabwe in this respect. While this happens though, cricket at the grassroots is not going to be adequately financed and resourced. It's a shame with all the money now floating around in cricket that this can't be the case.

Well Saman, Zimbabwe's a classic example of where brutality, not intelligence rules the day. Of course there are people in power who've obtained it by wrongful means but most of those countries are basket cases. Back on the cricket, has Kallis earned his huge IPL cheque? Cam White has also been disappointing in his two outings. Sean Marsh looks promising. Sreesanth and Chawla have bowled well. Warne has been the outstanding skipper.

Recco the problem with the cricket genius sperm bank is that there are other variables involved in creating a cricket genius. And Warne is proving he can still think batsmen out. As I said if the fat skipper has half a brain he'll learn from him and that can only benefit SA.

Bliksem I believe your comments are racist. Using your premise SA will never be a force again in sport. Remember thirty or forty years ago you only had the small white pool of players. Now in theory you have the whole country of forty-seven million which is well over twenty million more than Australia has to choose from. BTW your fat skipper is probably learning more about captaincy during this month than he has to date in a lifetime.

Organisation of a society springs from the efficiency and ingenuity of its citizens. The most organised and intelligent citizens are chosen by means of natural selection which is strongly influenced by genetics. It's got nothing to do with racism, it's just the reality of who is installed in power and who well equipped they are to carry out their tasks. The cream of our crop seems to be better organised than your crème de la crème

Since when was Australia dethroned as cricket's top dog? Aussies aren't bitter. If SA isn't putting money into the junior programs and its administrators are inefficient, doesn't that further underline our superiority? We even are superior geneticially in terms of organisation.

What a performance from Tanvir! And what a great leader Warne is!!!

I wonder if the resident South Africans can tell us why the Australians are so superior at sport, and especially at cricket. Is it that we are just genetically better endowed or are there other deeper reasons?

Y2jver1 the Saffers are nowhere to be seen. No wonder they struggled in the T20 world championship.

Yes the Aussies as usual are outshining everybody else. And what a surprise that the PCB does a backflip regarding Shoaib and allows the basket case to play in the IPL. This guy hangs around like a lingering bad smell.

I doubt Murali will take 1000 scalps his powers are waning. Warne was right in criticising Ganguly regarding the pressure he put on the umpire to accede to his request. Maybe they both deserved fines though. Did the fat one cheat though?

Well saman Pom's right in that too many Saffers prefer to represent the OLD DART before their native land with Telo being the latest to declare allegiance to the queen.

So the fat captain cheated. Who thinks he should lose his captaincy of SA? What is it about Ganguly and Warne together?

The fat captain reprised his innings from the WC semi. Doesn't he realise you can't charge quality bowlers in their first over? Isn't he smart enough to twig? BTW, while Vaughan's average his inferior to his, he's a better batsman and most significantly he's made runs against us Aussies. The fat Protea has never made a run against the best team in the world.

Well Fox nobody here purports to be a journalist At least though we can have friendly banter and exchange. Cricinfo's articles are varied in quality. Some are informative, analytical and at times controversial in nature. Others are below par and reflective of a journo who's required to meet a deadline or fulfil his quota of contributions. Sometimes the articles are all about pomposity and obfuscation and say very little. As for the Kolpak issue, it's a shame that economic laws and the fear of legal liability intrude upon sport and the sporting body's rights to create its own competition. The other aspect of Cricinfo is that it can't publish material which is too controversial. At least we can write some things with impunity.

Thanks y2jver1 for setting the record straight - the fat captain is ordinary. It's high time we disabused some deluded folks of the notion that he might be a half decent batsman and skipper. Even editor agrees with this - I've often seen this site mock Smithers as they've dubbed the corpulent one. Glad to see the PCB didn't cave in to the sycophantic, snivelling Shoaib. Your career might be effectively over you vain, self-serving idiot.

Saffer Master G has spoken - Punter has the superior brain, captaincy and batting record. Enough said! I believe both SA and Pollock did the right thing by his retirement. Be careful of reading too much into one T20 performance on a dodgy, reasonably bowler-friendly pitch. In the previous two matches he was tonked when the pitches were flatter. Clearly SA needed penetrative bowlers who can help the team take 20 wickets in tests - Pollock's not the answer in this respect. And it wouldn't be hard for the Mumbai charges to respect him more than Harby Singh. I also think you'll find it's Rudolph, not Rudolf. It's a moot point as to whether he deserves to be in the SA side. KP is a loss though, he's the best batsman produced by SA since exclusion. And I believe it's Dominic, not James Telo. He may be a gun but he hasn't proved himself yet.

Mumbai will be relieved to score its first win. I wish Harby would have slapped Symonds - the outcome would have been more interesting than floods of tears from sooky Sree. Anyone find it hard to believe that Shoaib is still trying to win back Pakistan's favour in order to play again? Doesn't he understand the notion of wearing out one's welcome? Now that he's getting long in the tooth he's expendable. Sadly for him his youthful promise will no longer bail him out. I did understand the pyjama comment but it rather provided a juicy opening that had to be explored. I wonder if the fat captain and Warne are brawling behind closed doors.

Dazzler why would Punter want his integrity impugned by journos? From what I remember video replays of the catch were inconclusive. His behaviour and demeanour throughout the series were impeccable in comparison to some of the petulant Indian players. Besides the fat one can become irascible at times. And Dazzler's spot on in saying Punter can only be half the man the corpulent captain is. We're talking probity, personality or moral fibre issues here, more the weighty ones which Dazz has alluded to. Of course Punter would never fit into the fat one's pyjamas. For a start he would be too cool to wear them. Moreover though he's too fit to have to bother about accoutrements that only the Big Ship Warwick Armstrong could hope to comfortably reside in without drowning.

Dazzler it's a tad simplistic to say you can't judge Punter's captaincy by his results purely because of the charges under him. Remember he's presided over a changing of the guard with quite a few retirements and following Waugh and Taylor putative great captains was a hard act to follow. Sometimes it's harder to stay at the top and people expect the Aussies to do well. How can you say he walked away from the Indian series without honour in any case? Last time I checked we won the series. And he didn't slap people or demand that umpires be dismissed from officiating in matches, unlike certain counterparts. Just watch him radically outwit the fat captain downunder this coming southern summer.

Saman Boucher had one good innings but both he and Kallis have been disappointing in the IPL to date. Kallis in particular given his hefty price tag. Steyn showed promise last night until Dhoni destoryed it. His battle with Hayden was perhaps a foretaste of things to come during your tour of oz. The fat captain has done well under Warne's influence and he's managed to restrained himself from belting Shane but you wonder how they get on away from the spotlight. As for comparing the obese one with Punter. He's not fit to polish Ponting's boots and few would disagree with that statement. Ponting is a modern batting great!!! And his captaincy record speaks for itself.

Kallis has been hugely disappointed but I always questioned his price tag. Is it because he's an all-rounder? But do they then realise his bowling these days is almost cannon-fodder in T20 and ODIs. Boucher has also been underperforming while Steyn's last over was butchered. The South Africans aren't doing well while the Aussies are shining. Even retired guys like Warnie and McGrath are still strutting their stuff. Pollock is being murdered: this vindicates his retirement.

I think Pollock's bowling so far this tournament shows that SA did the right thing in retiring him. Any decent batsmen with intent can destroy him.

But Enigma you still have to consider that this is T20. You can't necessarily extrapolate to test cricket was what I was getting at. Singh should receive a year's ban.

H.Singh surely can't ever captain a team again and whenever he represents India the rapport his teammates have with him might be under question. Harbi and Sreesanth in combat was surely a timebomb waiting to explode. Warne and Watson show the way for the Royals again as does Hayden with Chennai. Punter's certainly struggling. Boucher and Kallis disappointed for Bangalore.

Punter is universally more admired as a man than the fat skipper. BTW enigma I doubt either McGrath or Warne will come out of retirement. How much can you really extrapolate from T20? Both retired on a winning note and a personal high. Why would they jeopardise that?

One would have to concede that Ponting is struggling atm.

I agree with Speed re. Zimbabwe but his leadership overall has been poor and in any case he's done a backflip on Zim threatening England back in 2003 when they didn't want to play against this disgraced cricket nation.

Dazzler, the reality is that the fat captain is universally denounced because he's not popular. And his technique still isn't good. He's radically overweight, not a good skipper and he's desperate and dateless. The big news of the day surely is the spat between two antagonists Sreesanth and old Harbi. What is it with the latter? Can't he just play the game fairly and forget having run-ins with all and sundry - even compatriots!

No Crimson, I wouldn't chase Warne - who wants to be at the end of his assembly line of chicks? BTW Vaughan's been whingeing about not being a part of the IPL. Does anyone else here think he would actually be a hit in T 20 cricket? Surely even some of the young Indians who make up the numbers around the internationals would be superior to him. The porky Protea will be forever desperate and dateless.

Crimson I'm not in India. And I wouldn't lower myself to gyrating to boundaries - those girls probably have to be told when it's a four or six. Desperate and dateless porky Protea doesn't seem to chase chicks at any rate. Just on Flintoff, I agree he's overrated when you take his whole career in context but the upper level of his ability and performance belongs in the top echelon of current cricketers. His consistency has been lacking since the Ashes of 2005 but in fairness injuries have cruelled him. I also think it was a tactical error on England's behalf to make him captain for the tour of oz. Interesting to see that Warnie is still outperforming many of his active teammates and opponents. And he's in much better shape than the corpulent cape captain.

P-Pom you can't have it both ways - they're either pretend Africans or children of the commonwealth.

I thought it was frog in a blender! Symcox was really an ordinary spinner but as alluded to very handy with the bat and just as useful with his mouth.

I don't think Symcox was much of a spinner but he was certainly a very handy late order batsman.

I don't think Smith played at all in SL in 2006 - you have that wrong. He had an ankle injury and was sidelined along with Kallis.

KP missing home so much is more an indication of how Saffers prefer living in, and playing for, - England

I think JP should play in the tests ahead of Prince and Amla. And what's this about making tons consistently at provincial level? When was the last time any of SA's test incumbents played at domestic level on a consistent basis? JP would put more pressure on the opposition than the selfishly slow Prince as well.

I think you'll find AB de Villiers has a bit of talent in the music field as well. Apparently he sings, plays guitar and writes his own material. He and Brett Lee teamed up as a duo to entertain hotel guests in SA.

The Proteas did very well overall but I think that Smith is selfishly taking credit when he did nothing towards securing victory for his side.

Sami is poor, would be a bonus for you that he's missing.

KP was ok but nothing special. Came in when the swing had disappeared and played selfishly. Had an average strike rate compared with some of the other top players in the tournament. Never looked like taking a game by the scruff of the neck. Think he gets overrated.