Test cap looms for Hayward

Trevor Chesterfield

November 15, 1999

Centurion: Mornantau Hayward has become, if whispers from the A team camp are an accurate assessment, a Test bowler in waiting and woe betide this summers tourists England when they shape up to face his version of the ballistic missile.

Certainly Dale Benkenstein, the South Africa A captain, was left in no doubt that Hayward would at some stage this summer play in the Test series against England after his high velocity bowling rattled the touring Sri Lanka A batsmen on a SuperSport Park pitch erratic in bounce and likely to be the fastest they are going to encounter on this tour.

The new ``Wit Blitz'' remains in a revamped side which sees three controversial changes for the second A Team match of the four day series in Pietermaritzburg and starting on Thursday.

One of national selectors, Clive Rice left his calling card in the A Team dressing room at Centurion on Saturday and gave The Management an insight into the confused thinking emerging from the national selectors camp as they chop and change what is, in essence, a prestige side which was on the verge of thrashing Sri Lanka A by an innings and 116 runs with a day and half a session remaining.

The way Hayward, Victor Mpitsang and David Terbrugge bowled on Friday and Saturday they would have not disgraced the senior side which rushed to an innings victory over an injury-hit Zimbabwe.

Rice, however, declined to view the demolition job Dale Benkensteins side provided as they wiped the floor with their Sri Lanka A opponents. The fall out from his announcement about the three changes is, however, likely to cause disruptions in a side which deserved to remain intact.

From all accounts Nic Pothas, Neil McKenzie and David Terbrugge have been relieved of their A Team duty while Justin Kemp, Wendell Bossenger and Arno Jacobs have been summoned as replacements. There is a strong hint that the two Gauteng and Northerns players have been released to allow them to play in a combined Northerns/Gauteng XI to play the England in the four day game in Centurion starting on Thursday.

No one can argue with Kemps selection but those of Jacobs and Bossenger is in danger of turning the A Team, which has a proud record, into a type of President?s XI: neither player are yet worthy of A Team status; not while Carl Bradfield and Ian Mitchell are available.

Bossenger may have been last season?s leading wicketkeeper in terms of dismissals, but this does not automatically make him No 3 in the country. Hayward, with seven wickets in the game, including a five wicket spread on Friday, showed in this game that his A Section form has turned him into a much improved bowler to the 20-year-old colt Benkenstein handled when West Indies A toured South Africa to summers ago. He has also matured quickly since his disappointing tour of England earlier last year.

It had been argued that he should have toured Sri Lanka with the A team instead of touring England: the education process would have been seen him come though a lot faster and rounded him off as a more competitive player last season. Now, however, the pace he generated and the way he put the wind up most Sri Lanka A batsmen on Friday and Saturday suggests that he has become a highly motivated player in recent months.

``I can tell you now that he bowled some of the fastest deliveries I have seen this summer and must now rank among the top pace bowlers in the world,'' Benkenstein said yesterday. ``He has learnt a lot too, which is important to a captain who knows he can call on a fast bowler of his ability and class.''

Benkenstein was also impressed with Mpitsangs bowling, as was Dr Ali Bacher, managing director of the United Cricket Board, on Friday.

We saw the best of Mpitsang on Saturday with Benkenstein agreeing that the way the 19-year-old former Grey College fast bowler had bowled placed him in line for another senior tour next year either India or Sri Lanka. And do not be surprised if Hayward has not already graduated to a Test cap by then.

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