Adams rated an 'A', McKenzie a 'B'
Fanie Heyns - June 05, 2002

He regards Paul (Gogga) Adams as a match winner and that is one of the criteria that tipped the scales in the decision to offer him an A contract.

Neil McKenzie is a good cricket player but possibly not currently in exactly the same class as batsmen such as Jacques Kallis, Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs and he was consequently not rewarded with an A+ or A when the contracts were finalised.

This was said by Omar Henry, convenor of the national selection committee, on Tuesday in answer to a question on the finalisation of South African player contracts on Saturday.

Henry was questioned on why McKenzie, one of the country's most successful players in especially Test series against the Aussies, was only given a B contract while Adams, after a rather lacklustre period with the odd success in the home stretch, was rewarded with an A.

Henry said one had to compare apples with apples. It was very unfair to play off McKenzie's B contract against Adams' A grading as one (McKenzie) was a middle order batsman and the other was an attacking wrist-spin bowler.

"You also have to keep in mind that Adams has been playing Test cricket since 1995 and previously had an A contract. He proved himself during the course of the Test series against the Aussies as a better spin bowler than Nicky Boje and Claude Henderson, from there his grading," Henry said.

There was much acrimony over the decision to give McKenzie, one of South Africa's five cricketers of the year, a B contract.

The reasons for this are obvious. The 27-year-old middle order batsman for Northerns and South Africa was worth his weight in gold in Australia.

While everything around him fell like flies in the first Test in Adelaide and the second in Melbourne, McKenzie stood like the proverbial rock of Gibraltar.

He continued his performance against the Aussies in South Africa by scoring 99 at Newlands but fumbled by running out himself and Andrew Hall, and thereby opening the door for an Aussie victory in that test.

McKenzie has maintained an average of 39.81 in ten Tests the past season. In three tests in Australia he scored 224 runs at an average of 37.33, while he scored 191 runs at home, at an average of 38.20.

The middle order batsman scored 603 runs in 21 one-day internationals, at an average of 50.25 per match.

Maccie made room for Boeta Dippenaar in the Victoria & Bitter series in Australia but fared somewhat better in South Africa by scoring 121 runs at an average of 30.25.

What angers some critics, is why Adams was given an A contract after only having been the third best spin bowler in the country for the best part of the season.

Boje and Henderson were selected ahead of him for South Africa, and Adams has even had to play for the Western Province B team more than once.

Adams, a fighter with a heart as big as the Cape Town International Airport, took ten wickets in the final two Tests against Australia. He was one of the main reasons why the country ultimately emerged with dignity from the lost series at home against Shane Warne and the boys.

The wrist spinner's 4/102 was his best. The question is whether ten wickets at an average of 29.00 and a wicket every 37.90 deliveries warrant the A contract, after he was merely a factor at provincial level from April last year to March this year.

Henry said on Tuesday that the debate was in fact in a dead-end street until McKenzie lodged a protest with the United Cricket Board of South Africa, as it was a private matter between employer and employee.

He reckoned Maccie was currently not quite the same class of match winner as Gibbs, Kirsten or Kallis, hence the decision to keep him in a B category.