October 12 Saturday 2002
Boucher may captain SA in first Bangladesh Test

JOHANNESBURG: Mark Boucher may get the chance to captain South African team when they take on Bangladesh in the first Test at Buffalo Park in East London, his home ground.

Proteas captain Shaun Pollock is in race against time to be fit for the Test with an injured left knee, leaving door open for Boucher to lead his country in front of his home crowd. Pollock will not be in action for KwaZulu-Natal in their SuperSport match with Western Province at the weekend. He and the national selectors, under Omar Henry, would discuss the wisdom of his taking part in the first Test. At this stage sensible option seems to be to let Pollock rest.

There would also be no Nicky Boje when the team is announced next week. The left-arm spinner fractured his ring finger in the match with the West Indies last month and would miss the whole series against Bangladesh.

In the absence of Pollock, the selectors may want to have a good look at Andrew Hall, the Easterns all-rounder, while Alan Dawson, of Western Province, is also knocking on the door.

Robin Peterson, Claude Henderson and Paul Adams are all in the queue to take over Boje's spinning role.

Picking Martin van Jaarsveld as the No 3 batsman would make it possible to move Jacques Kallis to No 5 which would give him more freedom, specially if he had a long bowling spell in the Test.

Graeme Smith could fill gap left by Gary Kirsten as opening partner to Herschelle Gibbs, but Jacques Rudolph is also strongly in the picture.

The team for the first Test against Bangladesh could be: Herschelle Gibbs, Graeme Smith, Martin van Jaarsveld, Boeta Dippenaar, Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher, Andrew Hall, Robin Peterson, Steve Elworthy and Makhaya Ntini.