Ken Borland

Pakistan’s cricket team manager and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will probably disagree over the security situation in that country, but what isn’t in doubt is that Pakistan will face a daunting assignment of their own in South Africa over the next two months as they take on the Proteas in Tests, ODIs and T20 internationals.

Three Tests against the top-ranked South Africans will be Pakistan’s first and toughest appointment.

While the Proteas have shown brilliant current form with a 12-Test unbeaten run since December 2011, Pakistan have only played six Tests in the same period.

That’s partly because nobody wants to play in Pakistan due to the security situation in the troubled country and they have been forced to host their “home” Tests in the United Arab Emirates.

“There is a difference between perception and reality. Pakistan is as safe as any country. We’re not getting enough Test experience, under the pretext of security concerns,” manager Naveed Akram Cheema growled at his team’s arrival press conference at OR Tambo International Airport on Monday.

Cheema is the managing director of the Water and Power Development Authority and the chairman of a host of other parastatals, so it’s perhaps not surprising that he insisted on giving a political answer to what was a cricketing question.

But be that as it may, Pakistan will face an uphill challenge taking on the South Africans at home.

Captain Misbah ul-Haq acknowledged that, saying his team will have to adapt quickly to conditions here, having last played in anything similar when they won a one-off Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in September 2011. Earlier that year, they won a two-Test series in New Zealand.

“It’s really difficult for a team that does not play a format on a regular basis, but we’ll have to work hard and adjust as a group. Against the number one team, in South African conditions, we will have to play well for it to be game-on. We know it will be tough, but we will have to adapt to conditions. But this Pakistan team has a lot of youngsters who have really performed well and they love to take on a challenge. It’s time for them to come up with good performances and go one step ahead in their careers,” Misbah said.

Though Pakistan seemingly have a bowling attack that is capable of storming the Proteas’ castle, their biggest challenge will be scoring enough runs. Their batsmen, so impressive in sub-continental conditions, might not even make it across the moat when they come up against the bounce, swing and seam of Steyn, Philander and Morkel.

“It’s a quality bowling attack and we will have to bat well. It’s a real challenge when you’ve just come here from the sub-continent and whenever we’re abroad in countries like New Zealand and South Africa, we have to practise hard for the bounce and pace,” Misbah said.

Pakistan handled James Anderson, probably the closest bowler to Dale Steyn in world cricket, reasonably well in the UAE last year, but they will not have seen Vernon Philander before.

“The way Philander bowls, swinging the ball and hitting the seam, he will be a real factor with the new ball and it’s not surprising he takes so many wickets,” Misbah mused. “But in Test cricket you need to get the basics right, you need to stick to the basics against a bowler like him.”

The Pakistan attack is one of the best balanced in world cricket, with two right-arm quicks in the tall Umar Gul and Ehsan Adil, a left-arm giant in the seven-foot Mohammad Irfan, a pacy left-arm swing bowler in Junaid Khan and quality slow bowlers in off-spinner Saeed Ajmal and left-arm orthodox Abdur Rehman.

“The attack doesn’t have much experience here, only Umar Gul has played in South Africa, but if they adapt to the conditions then this attack can get the wickets we need. Especially Junaid, I think he will love to bowl here and Irfan too if he can get the ball in the right positions. Saeed Ajmal will be a factor if there is turn and bounce,” Misbah said.

Dav Whatmore, the former Sri Lanka and Bangladesh coach who played for Australia, is now with the Pakistan team and he warned against his bowlers getting too hyped up.

“In terms of fighting fire with fire, I’d like to see our skills do the talking more. The aggression part of the bowling should be shown with skill.

“It will be difficult for our batsmen over here, generally there’s higher bounce and more pace, but if the guys get over that, then it’s pretty good batting conditions, like Australia. If the youngsters get over the initial difficulties, then they could capitalise,” Whatmore said.

The Pakistanis open their tour with a four-day match against an SA Invitation XI starting in East London on Friday and Misbah said the likely Test team will play.

But the conditions in the sleepy Indian Ocean city will be very different to the charged-up atmosphere at the Bullring when the first Test starts at the Wanderers the following Friday (February 1).

The safety of the Pakistan team might then be in serious doubt.

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The SABC announced on Wednesday that they would only be providing live coverage of the limited-overs and T20 internationals between South Africa and New Zealand, and Cricket South Africa (CSA) are set to lose R20 million as a result.

The only coverage SABC are willing to provide of the two Tests against the Black Caps will be two highlights packages per day and, as a result,  CSA will only receive R11 million – R3 million from the SABC and R8 million from advertising time that has already been bought by the sponsors – for the television rights, when their actual value is R30 million.

“We are disappointed that the Tests will receive limited coverage and, although we are committed to the free-to-air broadcaster as part of our development mandate, we took a substantial cut in our broadcast rights fee to ensure we can take cricket to the South African public,” acting CSA chief executive Jacques Faul said in a statement released on Wednesday.

But behind the scenes, the cricket governing body is seething over the SABC’s unwillingness to fulfil their Icasa-stipulated mandate of providing live coverage of sporting events that are in the national interest. South Africa have been the number one ranked team in Test cricket since August, but the matches against New Zealand are their first on home soil since winning the pre-eminent ranking.

CSA sources told Business Day that Faul is so upset over the deal that he had to be talked out of considering whether to step down as CEO.

“The decision to broadcast these matches is a clear indication that we take our mandate seriously and we are cognisant that the public of South Africa deserve to see their cricket team – which is rated number one in the world in Test cricket and also highly in the other formats of the game.

“The SABC will continue to serve the public of South Africa and be true to their mandate of educating, informing and entertaining them,” SABC spokesman Sizwe Nzimande said.

CSA are now determined to handle their television rights differently next summer, with SuperSport likely to be offered exclusive rights and paying considerably more for them.

As one high-ranking CSA official said: “We’ve been falling over backwards to try and get cricket on free-to-air television because we know how vital that is to developing the game, especially amongst the disadvantaged communities. But now we’ve sold the rights to SABC at nearly one-third of their value. Where do they think most of our money to run our development programmes  comes from? It’s from selling the television rights and now we’ve taken a big knock in that department.”

Negotiations with the SABC had been ongoing for the last two months through world leading television rights company IMG, while CSA had also tried to get Sascoc and the sports ministry to intervene on their behalf as Faul acknowledges the importance of cricket being on the majority of TVs in the country.

“To grow our game, we need cricket on free-to-air. We see it as an obligation to all South Africans that they can see their number one team in action,” he said earlier this week.

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South Africa limited-overs captain AB de Villiers on Wednesday expressed his support for a new-look T20 side to be chosen for the series against New Zealand later this month.

The Proteas squad for the three T20 internationals between December 21 and 26 will be announced in Cape Town on Thursday and De Villiers expects fresh faces after South Africa’s disappointing ICC World T20 exit before the semi-final stage.

“You’ve got to keep the T20 team fresh and exciting and it’s a great vehicle to get youngsters through into international cricket. We want to try fresh faces and there will definitely be a few new names because there are youngsters who have really performed at domestic level and we need to give them a chance,” De Villiers said at the Wanderers on Wednesday, where he attended the announcement of KFC as the title sponsors for both the New Zealand and Pakistan T20 series.

“These new players will bring different talents and skills, which is exciting.”

The general trend in international cricket has been for countries to use T20 specialists rather than relying on their Test players and De Villiers said it was clear South Africa would have to go further down that route.

“The Test players have played a big part in the T20 side, but that might change in future and you’ll probably see a team with a whole different look,” De Villiers said.

De Villiers, fresh off his thrilling hundred in the series-clinching Perth Test victory over Australia, returned to limited-overs action over the weekend with a century for the Titans, albeit in a losing cause against the Cape Cobras in their Momentum One-Day Cup eliminator.

“That was one of my better hundreds because it was against a really good attack. You can tell the standard of domestic cricket is very good from that match and I like to play domestic cricket when it’s like international cricket,” De Villiers said.

New Zealand have suffered two major blows with the loss of injured spinner Dan Vettori and the unavailability of former captain Ross Taylor, and De Villiers conceded South Africa should beat the Black Caps if they play to their full potential.

“New Zealand are always a dangerous side, they beat us in the World Cup and they’re really tough to beat when they get things right. But we know we’re the favourites and if we play good cricket, then we should win. We have a mental advantage over them because we beat them over there at the beginning of the year.

“They have had a lot of changes to their Test side, which is still trying to find its feet, but they’re definitely more dangerous in T20. They’re a very busy team, very good in the field,” De Villiers said.

But even if fresh faces such as Aaron Phangiso, Hardus Viljoen, Chris Morris, Roelof van der Merwe, Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Andrew Birch are included, South Africa’s T20 strategies are not going to undergo any dramatic change.

“We may have new players, but we’ll use the same strategy and follow the same game-plan,” De Villiers said.

Which means De Villiers will definitely retain the wicketkeeper’s gloves.

“Yes I’m glad I’m a wicketkeeper now, after 50 overs in the field against the Cobras I’m a bit stiff!” he joked.

Probable squad – Faf du Plessis, Richard Levi, AB de Villiers, Farhaan Behardien, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Justin Ontong, Robin Peterson, Roelof van der Merwe, Chris Morris, Hardus Viljoen, Aaron Phangiso, Dale Steyn or Morne Morkel, Andrew Birch, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

South Africa’s limited-overs contests with New Zealand have often been antagonistic affairs and the abbreviated, all-action nature of T20 cricket means the adrenaline and intensity can only be ramped up a couple of notches.

The history of T20 matches between the two nations goes back to October 2005 when New Zealand played the first T20 international on African soil, beating the Proteas by five wickets at the BidVest Wanderers Stadium.

Since then, however, South Africa have had a clear advantage over the Black Caps, winning six of the last seven encounters.

Those wins have not always been clearcut, however, with South Africa winning off the last ball at the Wanderers in November 2007, by one run at Lord’s in the 2009 ICC World T20, and by just three runs in their last meeting with the Kiwis.

That victory in Auckland in February, bowlers Marchant de Lange, Morne Morkel and Johan Botha strangling the hosts in the last five overs, clinched a hard-fought series win for the Proteas.

New Zealand, led by the chic batting of Martin Guptill, had won the first game and should have won the decider, but were blown away by Richard Levi in the second match.

It seems a long time ago that Levi blasted his astonishing 117 not out off just 51 balls in Hamilton, breaking the world records for fastest T20 century (45 balls) and most sixes (13). The 24-year-old almost inevitably lost form after suddenly finding himself in the international limelight and, by the end of the ICC World T20 in October he had been dropped. But the Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras opener has regained his touch and has been one of the star performers in the Momentum One-Day Cup this year.

The whole ICC World T20 affair is one Proteas coach Gary Kirsten will want to put behind him as quickly as possible as the former India coach completed a miserable record of having lost all nine of the matches he has been involved in in the SuperEights stage of that competition.

The next T20 world cup will be upon us apace in Bangladesh in April 2014, the year before the 50-over World Cup South Africa so desperately want to win, and Kirsten will begin the process of building a new squad when the Proteas face New Zealand in three internationals in Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth over the Christmas period.

Success in twenty20 international cricket has not come as swiftly for Hashim Amla as he would have liked, but Levi has surely done enough to earn a recall, while it is clear Faf du Plessis has what it takes to excel for South Africa in all formats.

Then again, Amla showed during his magnificent 196 off just 221 balls in the Perth Test against Australia that he has the ability to put any attack to the sword, so that trio could make a perfectly acceptable top three.

Jacques Kallis, the most complete cricketer South Africa has ever produced, deserves a rest before the Tests, but AB de Villiers is the perfect batsman to anchor the middle-order.

JP Duminy’s unfortunate injury does leave a hole, however, with Farhaan Behardien and Justin Ontong not enjoying totally convincing form at domestic level.

With Johan Botha, South Africa’s most successful T20 spinner, also out of contention and Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn possibly resting after their heavy workloads in 2012, Kirsten has the chance to clean the slate and introduce some new faces.

Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Ryan McLaren, Hardus Viljoen, Andrew Birch and Aaron Phangiso are all players who have covered themselves in glory in recent months.

New Zealand, meanwhile, are still tearing their hair out over their inconsistency and have injury problems to boot, with Dan Vettori ruled out of the tour with an achilles problem.