Cricket Close Up - 17/01/07 - Spininfo | Cricket

Hi Mark

A Quality win... and a sour taste

The Silly Point newsletter comes to you from Gary Kirsten, Paddy
Upton and Dale Williams - The Performance Partners. You are
receiving it either because you subscribed or somebody forwarded it
to you.

To subscribe and receive your own personal copy, send an eMail to

From Gary at Silly Point

For the first time in a while, I have begun to notice the makings
of a quality test side. Paul Harris has been a revelation. He has
only played 2 tests, but he has had a major impact in both games.
For too long now we have forgotten to understand the importance of
a spinner in a test match. The role he has performed so well has
been three fold. Firstly, he has taken wickets and got some of the
top batsmen in the world out. Secondly, he has been able to do a
holding job and when he has not been taking wickets, he has kept
the run rate down. Thirdly and maybe most importantly, he has
allowed our four seamers to have sufficient breaks, so that their
spells are energised and have high intensity. How well they have
performed. I can't help but think that Claude Henderson five years
ago would have been just as effective. Who knows why he was thrown
on the scrap heap!

I think the most encouraging signs are in our batting where two
relatively new faces to test cricket have been involved in winning
games for South Africa. Ashwell Prince has had a fantastic season.
He acknowledges the work he has done with Paddy Upton on the mental
side of his game as being a big factor in his recent successes. I
think it is especially noticeable in the way he has shown composure
and maturity at the crease. He has become an organized test batsmen
who understands his game. I believe he will continue to be a major
asset to the test side.

Hashim Amla is also starting to show signs of what needs to be done
to score consistently at test level. He has not been our most
prolific first class batsman over the last 3 years for nothing. He
knows how to score big hundreds and the more he begins understand
his game, the more runs he is going to score.

Herschelle Gibbs for the first time in a while played with real
flair and looked confident and relaxed. When he is in that space,
he is great to watch and a pleasure to play with. He is a vital cog
in that batting line up and more consistency from him will be
crucial to our test match performances.

I just hope they stick with AB de Villiers and keep him at the top
of the batting order. He is a hugely talented player who is a
little unsure of his game plan at present. He has made some poor
decisions in his shot selection. This is caused mainly because he
wants to attack and play positively. Opening the batting will help
him to tighten up his game and once he sorts that out, he will go
big. Herschelle went through the same process when he began
opening the batting in the late 90's. This was the start of a great
4 year spell for him when he averaged over 50 in test match cricket.

Well done to the team - a great performance! I would like to have
seen 500 on the board in the first innings though!!

Dale you had some thoughts?

From Dale at first slip

Yes thanks Gazza. I think we would be remiss not to mention the
incident with Herschelle and the spectators. I read Tom Eaton's
column on him in a recent SA Cricketer where he highlighted both
his brilliance and the inconsistencies in his performance. Paddy -
are there any links between his on field inconsistent performance
and his off-field antics.

From Paddy at short leg...

Good question Dale. Herschelle has often been referred to as a
'confidence player'. I'm not 100% sure what this means - my guess
is it's something like... if he's confident when going in to bat, he
will be more likely to score runs and if not, he is less likely to.

Based on this guess, it means that Herschelle's level of confidence
will largely determine his success - which is a somewhat random
approach to determining success at the professional level of the
game. Confidence is guaranteed to fluctuate, and thus so is
performance if it is attached to it.

In comparison, take a player like Jacques Kallis, no matter how
many runs he scored in the previous innings, or how good he is
feeling at the crease, or what his level of confidence, he still
plays according to the same tried and tested game plan. Having this
fundamental game plan and sticking to it each and every innings
seems a more professional approach, and one that will deliver
results more consistently. Anyone who has watched Herschelle bat
more than a half a handful of times will notice that he does not
have a consistent approach to an innings.

How is this related to the recent incident, which Richard, one of
our Silly Point subscribers suggests was an 'unfortunate
observation' rather than a 'racial comment'? As a 'confidence
player', I suggest Herschelle is attached to or affected by
whatever happens around him. Differently put, outside influences
determine a lot of his behaviour, positively when he's confident,
and negatively when he's under pressure.

Watching Herschelle is like learning to play golf, often
frustrating, but that one sweet shot, or one masterful innings
makes up for all the frustration... and keeps you interested enough
in the hope of another.

Dale: Pad, you were once involved in an incident where you were
fined for your reaction to a member of the crowd who abused SA
players. What happened again?

Paddy's response... "That's right Dale, it was in Durbs in 1998.
Fanie de Villiers and I were involved in an incident where a bunch
of guys had been verbally abusing Jacques Kallis and Allan Donald
for 2 days of a test match. What I can say is there is often much
more to these incidents that what the general public are exposed
to. I can empathize with the frustration and anger that Herschelle
might have felt, and can empathize with him as some people try to
conjure up a racist charge. Like happened with Fanie and I, it's
good to see the team supporting Herschelle, even though he was
off-sides in verbalizing his frustration in the way he did. As for
the charge and fine, I think Neil Manthorp covers it beautifully in
his Supercricket article, which we link to below.

Dale: Thanks Pad, Gary any thoughts from your side? What's it like
being heckled on the field when you are facing the pressure of the
game?

Gary: It's a tough one and never easy to deal with, but
unfortunately it's part of the package in international cricket and
if one is not able to control one's emotions on the field, there
will be consequences. The South African team had racist comments
thrown at them on the last tour to Australia and we often hear of
football players receiving abuse. We all know that it is
unacceptable behaviour and needs to be stamped out, I'm just not
sure how they are going to do it.

I can assure you that after spending many hours at third man for
South Africa, I have been abused and called every kind of name that
exists. It's not pleasant while it is happening, but when you wake
up the next morning, it will be the last thing you are thinking
about.

Until next time

Gary

Links:
Gibbs a racist? Come on - Neil Manthorp on Supercricket
Gibbs banned for two tests - Supercricket

Over to you, Aggers