Proteas in town
WHY YOU, I WELCOME YOU: A witty South Africa paceman Makhaya Ntini dances his way into the team bus at the Zia International Airport yesterday.Photo: STAR
South Africa captain Graeme Smith vowed to continue their re-cent success when they play in a two Test and three-match one-day series against the Tigers during their month-long tour in Bangladesh.
The left-hander confirmed his intentions to the reporters on his arrival at the Zia International Airport lounge yesterday but warned that the Tigers will not be easy prey like in their first trip in 2003.
"We have come here after a very successful home series (against West Indies). The confidence of my team is good as we have played couple of good series against Pakistan (in Pakistan) and then against New Zealand and West Indies at home," he said.
"The schedule is a bit hectic but this is a very important away tour for all of us," said Smith, who will go straight to India after completion of the series in Bangladesh.
The Proteas boast a star-studded line-up with warriors like Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers and the skipper himself in the batting line-up besides possessing a three-pronged fiery pace attack which includes Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini and young sensation Dale Steyn.
All of which are factors that should make exhilarating cricket easy to come by -- a fact that the skipper ensured would happen.
"We have got some wonderful cricketers in the side. We will play a brand of cricket which the Bangladeshi fans will love to watch and they will definitely enjoy our cricket," promised the stout left-hander.
But the primary goal for the South African's would be to accustom themselves with the prevalent conditions before the series gets underway with the first Test match from February 22 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
"Obviously we have to work on a few things before the start of the series with our first target acclimatising ourselves with the conditions.
“However, I am not too worried since our players are used to playing in different conditions," he said.
The South Africa team will launch their campaign with a three-day warm-up match against a strong local selection to be held at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium on February 17-19.
In their first trip, South Africa wrapped up the Test series quite comprehensively but Smith was not too insistent on emphasizing the past.
“I don't think they (Tigers) will be easy prey. We are more interested to focus on our game. We have played together for the last three months and I am confident that we are strong enough to adjust to any conditions and play for the best possible outcome,” explained Smith.
“We had a good tour of Bangladesh five years back and we are similarly looking forward to another successful outcome in this series,” was his reply to a question asking whether Bangaldesh would be easy opposition.
But the highlight of the session, was the obvious question of how sore the wounds of the World Cup defeat by Bangladesh in Guyana were.
Smith was understandably circumspect.
"We always respect them and obviously they will get more respect now especially when they are going to play in their own condition," he responded.
Smith dismissed the notion that his team's performance would be adversely affected by the feud between Cricket South Africa (CSA) president Norman Arendse and coach Mickey Arthur over the team selection regarding CSA's transformation policy.
“We are concentrating on cricket and cricket only ever since the team have gotten together. There is obviously some pressure on specific individuals to perform but this issue will not overbear on them,” assured the captain.
All in all it was an almost quiet arrival by the South Africa team and there was hardly anything worthy of note rather than Hashim Amla's desire for 'halal food' during the tour, Nel's eccentricity and some chaos about the lost luggage of Kallis.
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