Australia v South Africa - Series Preview

Any Australia v South Africa clash is always highly anticipated, and both sides enter this series with a point to prove and with captains under a certain amount of pressure. Australia have never won an ATG series against the Proteas, and it was the 3-1 defeat in South Africa last season that brought Bradman's reign as captain to an end. Present incumbent Richie Benaud has since led the team to a successful Ashes defence followed by a 3-0 win over New Zealand, but his personal form has hit rock bottom during this time - 87 runs @ 12.43 and 20 wickets @ 44.10 - and he will know that he must perform in this series or face the consequences.

South Africa's last outing was their traumatic 3-1 defeat in the Caribbean, a series that saw them fatally exposed against pace, with the nadir reached in Antigua when they were bowled out for 30, the lowest total ever recorded in ATG history. Trevor Goddard has been at the helm for each and every one of South Africa's 49 ATG Tests, but like Benaud he too is now under pressure, and he will need his team to perform at a far higher level than they did against West Indies if he is to hold on to his job.

As far as the rest of the South African squad is concerned, the main talking points have been the omission of Mike Procter and the inclusion, for the first time, of Hansie Cronje. Procter has paid the price for an alarming loss of form against West Indies, whilst Cronje's selection has divided opinion, given the match-fixing baggage that accompanies him. There has even been talk that he could be given the captaincy should the selectors decide to call time on Goddard's reign, a scenario that really would raise eyebrows around the cricket world.

South Africa Squad
TL Goddard (c), AD Nourse (v/c), NAT Adcock, KC Bland, WJ Cronje, DJ Cullinan, AA Donald, PS Heine, DT Lindsay, NBF Mann, BM McMillan, PM Pollock, RG Pollock, BA Richards, DJ Richardson, HJ Tayfield.