Sports Staff

Ryan McLaren will find a place in the ODI squad as an allrounder

A NEW era is expected in South African cricket today with the announcement of the Test and one-day squads.

The speculation over the past week has pointed to the forced retirement from the ODI squad of those two ageing fast bowlers, Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel. Both men are 31, would be too old for the 2011 World Cup and there are several young players waiting to take their places. Ntini lacked his old pace on the recent tour of England and was dropped for the last two ODIs. In the first three matches, he took just one wicket and in the first match conceded 68 runs off nine overs. Nevertheless, his record in ODI cricket is phenomenal with 256 wickets and he has the status of senior player. What has also become clear is that Ryan McLaren will find a place in the ODI squad as an allrounder following his consistently good performances in South African provincial cricket and in England, where he has been playing for Kent. He finished seventh in the English county bowling average, having taken 49 wickets at 23.46. McLaren has apparently been persuaded to sacrifice his lucrative county contract (reportedly more than R1-million a year) for a place in the Proteas ODI team, and the possibility of breaking into the tour of Australia later this year. McLaren, who is only 25, was kept out of the South African team by Shaun Pollock. Once Pollock retired, the allrounder from Bloemfontein had signed a Kolpak contract with Kent, which prevented him from playing for SA. He is hoping to get out of his contract with Kent and negotiations are reportedly under way. Nel has had his problems with South African cricket in the past, often believing he was the victim of affirmative action. He has taken 106 wickets for the Proteas in 79 ODIs and is reportedly eyeing a deal with English county Surrey next year. Other likely newcomers to the ODI squad could be Johan Louw, of the Dolphins and Northamptonshire, left-arm seamer Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who has been on the fringes of selection since last season and would placate any outcry at the dropping of Ntini, and Dean Elgar, the Eagles batsman. Tsotsobe would give the attack a left-arm variety that it has occasionally lacked. Alviro Petersen would have caught the selectors’ eyes too, especially following his centuries in each innings of the opening matches in the provincial competition this season. But the competition for batting places is fierce, unlike that of fast bowling or allrounder. The two squads are due to be revealed at 9am today at a press conference at OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg by Gerald Majola, the chief executive of Cricket SA who is acting as selection convener. There will also be injury concerns for the selectors. Graeme Smith is still not fit after hurting an elbow during the tour of England and Albie Morkel, who would be a shoo-in as an ODI allrounder, has a shoulder injury. The team will assemble in Kimberley later this month for a training camp before the season starts with an ODI against Kenya in Bloemfontein on October 31 and then another in Kimberley on November 2. That will be followed by a Twenty-20 match against Bangladesh, three ODIs against the same opposition and two Test matches, in Bloemfontein and Centurion.

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