As India continued to stumble from one humiliation to the next since that soggy afternoon in Chennai, you could almost see the South Africans smile in far-off Pretoria where they have a high performance centre. And even events in Mumbai will probably not dim their appetite for a two-match Test series on the sub-continent — which not so long ago would have caused a monumental mental scowl. Like the New Zealanders 12 months ago, they feel they have Sourav Ganguly’s motley crew of has-beens and wannabe world champions well taped. Even without the only front-line spinner they possess in Nicky Boje in their ranks, new coach Ray Jennings knows what he is doing. He has ordered subcontinent-style pitch conditions for his charges to practice on. After all, if the Kiwis did it in New Zealand conditions, well.why can’t we? And as Stephen Fleming’s Black Caps had the better of the two drawn Tests in India October 12 months ago, you can imagine the theory among the new Safs management: We go one better. After the serious mauling by what is a highly impressive Australian side, the Safs will be expecting India to still be in disarray and about as mentally groggy as they were four years ago, when South Africa were last here and won the series 1-0. All of this forgetting, of course, that Australia and their coach John Buchanan had been plotting for three years after that 2-1 defeat of 2001, to conquer their final frontier. South Africa have not sent even an A Team on an exploratory visit to the subcontinent since Hansie Cronje was exposed with his hand in the metaphorical till. In fact, there has long been this impression in South Africa that the thought of playing India in India is low on their list of priorities — hence no A Team tours in more than a decade to test conditions or develop the next level of spinners. And perhaps why a two-match series of Tests in India is about as long as a series should be. Jennings, well known for having an ego the size of the Kimberley Hole — the world’s biggest manmade pit — is not shy either of asking a local writer back in March for about US $200 to put his side of the story over a wrangling contractual imbroglio that led to him losing out as a coach in the new franchise system. That was about the time New South Wales rejected his credentials as coach of the Australian state side. A former gloveman who was also a dab hand as a batsman in tight situations, he would have studied India’s recent batting debacle against Australia on television. From that no doubt, he would get the idea, as has the new Safs wicketkeeper, Thami Tsolekile, how subcontinent pitches are low and slow turners. This is forgetting, of course, that soil conditions differ between Galle and the SSC, Colombo. In fact, a small lesson of geography explains there is a vast difference between, say, the Green Park venue in Kanpur that is close to New Delhi and Eden Gardens in Kolkata. It is a bigger shift in distance and soil that make up the surfaces at those grounds than that, say, between a bouncy Wanderers pitch and the tired flat conditions of East London and Port Elizabeth. So when Fleming sought advice of what type of subcontinent conditions to prepare, he was told to try a surface where there would be a lot of runs but some bounce for the spinners. And that is what happened: the Tests in Ahmedabad and Mohali were high-scoring draws. In fact, if Chennai and Mumbai are examples of what pitch preparation is about in India, Ganguly would prefer the Kanpur and Eden Garden surfaces to have similar bounce to help spinners such as Chepauk Stadium, where Australia were seriously undone by bounce and Anil Kumble, and Wankhede. Yet, instead of a genuine frontline spinner, the Safs, in their wisdom went for a swing bowler, Charl Langeveldt, as the replacement for Boje. And then had to replace him with Robin Petersen. It explains the type of psychological malaise affecting the game in South Africa.
