Members End: Wandering Warne, Aussie anguish, mumbling Malinga, Titans titter

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

The Indian press, never shy to climb a mountain when they could just as easily step over a molehill, got themselves into a hot fuss over Shane Warne’s impromptu appearance at SA’s net practice in Dhaka on Wednesday ahead of Friday’s semi-final. “Shane Warne comes to SA’s rescue,” was one headline as representative as it was hopelessly overblown. Closer to the probable truth is that Warne, bored of his luxury hotel, felt like turning his arm over.

Besides, as Ravichandran Ashwin told a press conference on Thursday, “We can’t really say how much of a difference (Warne) can make. He could have probably told them what’s happening (in terms of conditions) in Dhaka, and those kind of things. Apart from that, I don’t know what he can do in a day.”

Talking of Aussies, where were they at semi-final time? Oh, that’s right - they couldn’t quite find their way out of the group stage. At least, their men’s team couldn’t. Ha-ha. It’s OK, fellow South Africans: what with both our men’s and women’s teams in the final four, we’re allowed to laugh at the not so mellow men in yellow.

Fast bowlers do not have the best reputations as captains, exceptions like Shaun Pollock noted. Perhaps they have too much to think about without the cares of leadership. Or is it that they tend not to have enough of the raw material to think with. Namely, brains. Lasith Malinga made a case for the latter when he turned up at the toss for Sri Lanka’s game against New Zealand on Monday because Dinesh Chandimal had been banned for a slow over rate. Asked by the television commentator about the changes to his team, Malinga couldn’t quite put his finger on a teammate’s name: “Another guy will play.” Not that that was bad enough to end Malinga’s captaincy career. When Chandimal dropped himself for Thursday’s semi-final against West Indies, the mop-haired fast bowler was again entrusted with the leadership.

Things threatened to get a little silly at the Titans awards function on Tuesday when the president of the Northerns Cricket Union, John Wright, dubbed the team the “Backdoor Boys” for their happy habit of playing themselves out of trouble. Paul Harris, the MC, was having none of that: “Let’s just call them the ‘Comeback Kids’.”