'You can never throw away experience' - Jennings

Mickey Arthur's comments that senior players may be shunted out of South Africa's ODI team have not found favour with Ray Jennings, the man Arthur replaced as national team coach in 2005. The problem is not with age, Jennings says, but with performance.

Arthur had said South Africa would need to re-think their team composition in the build-up to the 2011 World Cup after losing 4-0 to England in the ODI series, which followed a historic triumph in the Tests.

Four of South Africa's most experienced players, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini and Mark Boucher, were below-par in the ODIs against England, but Jennings said Arthur would be committing a blunder by dropping senior players. "You can never throw away experience and you rather need to ask why the more experienced players are not performing at the moment," Jennings told the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Sondag. "It is not the solution to throw away older players and replace them with young players. Age has nothing to do with the performances and the real question is if you want to play and if you want to perform at this level."

Kallis, South Africa's most prolific batsman in recent years, had a torrid time with the bat in both the Tests and ODIs, and Jennings said he felt the allrounder was unhappy during the tour. "I believe a happier Kallis is a Kallis who will perform," he said. "Something was wrong with him on tour, or am I missing the point. If he had a technical problem in his batting, I'd also have loved to have it, because with it he became the best batsman in the world. A happier Kallis would be putting runs on the board and something was definitely wrong with him on this tour."

Arthur, meanwhile, has said he's committed to South Africa, even as he admitted speaking to a few counties in England. "I would seriously like to work in county cricket, but South Africa have offered me a new contract through to the 2011 World Cup and my current commitment is to them," he told the Daily Echo. "I haven't won the World Cup or beaten Australia. They are things I would love to do."

South Africa's loss in the ODI series to England ended an otherwise memorable season, in which they won away Test series in Pakistan, Bangladesh and England and drew in India.