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LEFT: Tym Glaser/Columnist ...
RIGHT: Brian Lara
THE MUCH-anticipated Test series between the West Indies and South Africa is under way and, on face value, the hosts will have a tough time keeping an improving SA team at bay.
Regional sponsorship spat aside and current exiles included, the tourists simply have a better team man-for-man than the hosts.
If you were to pick an unbiased XI from the two squads it would read something like: Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Rudolph/ Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Jacques Kallis, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Mark Boucher/A.B. deVilliers, Shaun Pollock, Pedro Collins, Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel/Nicky Boje.
Arguments can be made for Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds as openers but their statistics simply don't match up with their South African counterparts.
Overall, the West Indies at full strength (hopefully by the second Test in Trinidad) may have a slight edge in the batting department with the peerless Lara leading a potent if inconsistent line-up of Gayle, Hinds, Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and possibly Donovan Pagon.
South Africa rely extremely heavily on Kallis to anchor their line-up. Young skipper Smith is prone to form slumps but they are nothing like the troughs his ultra-talented opening partner Gibbs plunges into from time to time.
rising talents
Rudolph and deVilliers are rising talents but yet to fully stamp their class at the Test level while Pollock, Boje and Andrew Hall are primarily bowling all-rounders.
However, on what are likely to be batsmen-friendly pitches, the four-Test series will be decided by the bowlers and that is where the South Africans have the key edge.
Although beaten 2-1 by England in their recent home series earlier this year, the South Africans show they are starting to put together one of the most impressive attacks in the game.
Pollock, still only 31, and Ntini are as good as any new-ball combination going around and fiery Andre Nel and Charl Langeveldt complete a more than competent four-pronged attack. Boje doesn't particularly excite as the team's spin option but he's better than anything the Windies have in that department.
As for WI, left-hander Collins has improved in leaps and bounds thanks to his discovery of swing but the rest of the attack is either brittle or inexperienced. Reon King has performed reasonably well at the Test level but is prone to break down. Jamaican pacers Daren Powell, Jermaine Taylor and Dwight Washington have the grand total of seven Tests and 15 wickets between them.
Also history favours a SA victory as they have won 10 of the 15 Tests between the countries. Their record is 2-2-2 in six Tests here but they comfortably won their last trip in 2001 2-1.
Still, the game of glorious uncertainty is played out on the field and not in newspaper column space and, if nothing else, it should be a keen competition as the Windies are still hard to toss at home.
