Bring on the A team and let's rumble
Source: IOL - 31st August 2002 (Thanks Sabina)

Skipper Neil McKenzie's seven one-dayers against the touring Australia A side will be a rehearsal for the World Cup. Neil McKenzie, who has been named as captain of the South Africa "A" team to play seven one-dayers against Australia A, starting next week, will take little comfort from the fact that a World Cup summer is an artificial beast.

There is a general jockeying for places ahead of the tournament in South Africa next year. While opportunities need to be taken, there is a fair deal of looking over shoulders to see who is speeding up on the inside lane.

So while McKenzie is doubtless chuffed to be back in the big-time after missing out in Morocco, it won't have escaped his notice that when he is experiencing the delights of Potchefstroom, Alan Dawson and Dale Benkenstein will be jetting to Sri Lanka for the Champions Trophy.

"I was going to play overseas in the off-season but then I had a knee injury," says McKenzie. "I was doing a bit of gym and physio work on the knee and then I went to Spain for a while.

"I think what really disappointed me about Morocco was that I was gearing myself up to playing Pakistan and Sri Lanka over there, it was going to be a good test. And then you get back from Spain all ready to play and suddenly you're not in the side."

Despite the hothouse atmosphere of a World Cup, Dave Nosworthy, the Titans coach, has urged McKenzie to be patient in his quest to get back into the national side. In the meantime, McKenzie is working on a few minor technical adjustments, in the hope that he does enough against Australia A to nudge the national selectors' conscience.

"Everything happens for a reason so not being in Morocco allowed me to work on a few things," says McKenzie. "I've started to do a bit of sweeping this year, which I normally don't do, so maybe we'll see a few more sweeps."

McKenzie has also taken advantage of the comparatively quiet time post-Spain to make some mental adjustments to his game.

"In the one-day set-up I start off slowly and then I catch up balls, so if I get to 80 I'm normally a run a ball," he says. "But early on I tend to be a bit slow and take a bit of time to get going - but I always catch up. I've decided this season to just push the ones a bit more and maybe get to 15 off 20 balls rather than 15 off 30."

Despite the technical and mental tweaking, McKenzie gives the impression of having weathered last season's Australian storm better than most. He came agonisingly close to centuries against the Aussies in Adelaide and Cape Town, with his dismissal in the latter Test signalling a significant decline in the home side's fortunes.

Throughout it all he remained bullish that the South Africans could beat Steve Waugh's conquering band, and although he admits that he was perhaps naïve in his view, he was at last vindicated in the Kingsmead Test when the home side scored a restorative victory.

He gets another chance to prove his thesis on Wednesday - and six times in rapid succession after that.