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Rob Houwing
It is an interesting thought that, in pre-season, many experts considered young Wayne Parnell the likeliest replacement for the Proteas should long-in-the-tooth Makhaya Ntini lose his Test lustre … as he subsequently has, of course.
Instead the 29-year-old Friedel de Wet has emerged from relative franchise anonymity to fill the void for the time being, and understandably the jury remains out on the strong-shouldered right-armer’s suitability to a more permanent role in the side.
Yet any fascination with Parnell as a Test “possible” is wholly understandable, even given that he has played only about as many first-class games as his current age of 20.
After all, a quality left-arm option in any attack is never to be scoffed at, and many South African enthusiasts will still have fond memories of the all-too-brief, though positively life-threatening alliance between Allan Donald and Brett Schultz for the country.
It amounted to just nine Tests, but Australia and Sri Lanka, especially, were sometimes badly shaken up by them, and South Africa never lost during their tandem presence.
While Parnell is a rather different bowling specimen to that hefty, high-action catapult Schultz, of course, here was someone who burst onto the international scene at limited-overs level last summer, still a teenager, and quickly earned a reputation as a consistent wicket-taker even during times when he was taking the sort of tap you would expect of a rookie.
He established himself with illuminating ease as Dale Steyn’s partner at the helm of the attack, sometimes “bending” the ball prodigiously at speeds in excess of 140km/h.
Not unsurprisingly, the former SA U19 captain’s strides were swiftly rewarded with a Cricket South Africa contract – making him the youngest player yet to achieve that status.
Since then, however, and obviously not helped by the disruption of an ankle injury early in the present season, the most significant moves by Parnell have been predominantly backwards … almost violently so in recent weeks.
In four SuperSport Series matches so far in the summer, he has managed only seven scalps for the Warriors at an expensive 48.28. Even considering some of the flat Eastern Cape tracks his franchise are pretty accustomed to, that is a poor return, and he is conceding not far off five runs to the over in that usually most sedentary format of the game.
The MTN40 competition, which ought to be more his forte, has brought no better fortunes at all.
In three matches these are his figures, all in his home environment of Port Elizabeth: 6-1-44-1 v Lions, 7.3-1-55-1 v Titans and 8-0-55-0 v Eagles.
They cannot be aiding his own confidence, nor his franchise’s cause, and they are certainly not carrying him any closer to a swift return to the national camp, either.
Is Parnell simply having that “awkward second full season” in our top-flight cricket that critics so often refer to as a hazard along cricketers’ developmental path? Or is there also some element of his taking his eye off the ball just a little, too?
Many accolades, and garlands of a more financial nature, have flown his way over a pretty short period of time, and these can bring parallel pitfalls to any sportsman in the extremely fledgling stages of adult life.
I have no hard and fast evidence to suggest that Parnell has fallen into any such damaging traps himself, but a one-match SuperSport Series suspension recently is bound to have got some tongues wagging.
It was shrouded in intrigue and secrecy – in fairness, these things often are -- with the Warriors simply citing “disciplinary reasons” and “an issue dealt with internally”.
Parnell needs to be closely watched, mentored and assisted, especially at a clearly embattled juncture for his cricket, at least statistically.
Maybe some intensive work, between Warriors engagements, with Proteas bowling coach Vincent Barnes, or cerebral old bowling hands like Corrie van Zyl or Eric Simons – psst, is that left-arm swingster of yesteryear Stephen Jefferies out there somewhere? – would work rejuvenating wonders.
Because Wayne Dillon Parnell could yet become a really good ‘un, and they don’t just grow on trees.
This mini-slump must be nipped in the bud …
It is an interesting thought that, in pre-season, many experts considered young Wayne Parnell the likeliest replacement for the Proteas should long-in-the-tooth Makhaya Ntini lose his Test lustre … as he subsequently has, of course.
Instead the 29-year-old Friedel de Wet has emerged from relative franchise anonymity to fill the void for the time being, and understandably the jury remains out on the strong-shouldered right-armer’s suitability to a more permanent role in the side.
Yet any fascination with Parnell as a Test “possible” is wholly understandable, even given that he has played only about as many first-class games as his current age of 20.
After all, a quality left-arm option in any attack is never to be scoffed at, and many South African enthusiasts will still have fond memories of the all-too-brief, though positively life-threatening alliance between Allan Donald and Brett Schultz for the country.
It amounted to just nine Tests, but Australia and Sri Lanka, especially, were sometimes badly shaken up by them, and South Africa never lost during their tandem presence.
While Parnell is a rather different bowling specimen to that hefty, high-action catapult Schultz, of course, here was someone who burst onto the international scene at limited-overs level last summer, still a teenager, and quickly earned a reputation as a consistent wicket-taker even during times when he was taking the sort of tap you would expect of a rookie.
He established himself with illuminating ease as Dale Steyn’s partner at the helm of the attack, sometimes “bending” the ball prodigiously at speeds in excess of 140km/h.
Not unsurprisingly, the former SA U19 captain’s strides were swiftly rewarded with a Cricket South Africa contract – making him the youngest player yet to achieve that status.
Since then, however, and obviously not helped by the disruption of an ankle injury early in the present season, the most significant moves by Parnell have been predominantly backwards … almost violently so in recent weeks.
In four SuperSport Series matches so far in the summer, he has managed only seven scalps for the Warriors at an expensive 48.28. Even considering some of the flat Eastern Cape tracks his franchise are pretty accustomed to, that is a poor return, and he is conceding not far off five runs to the over in that usually most sedentary format of the game.
The MTN40 competition, which ought to be more his forte, has brought no better fortunes at all.
In three matches these are his figures, all in his home environment of Port Elizabeth: 6-1-44-1 v Lions, 7.3-1-55-1 v Titans and 8-0-55-0 v Eagles.
They cannot be aiding his own confidence, nor his franchise’s cause, and they are certainly not carrying him any closer to a swift return to the national camp, either.
Is Parnell simply having that “awkward second full season” in our top-flight cricket that critics so often refer to as a hazard along cricketers’ developmental path? Or is there also some element of his taking his eye off the ball just a little, too?
Many accolades, and garlands of a more financial nature, have flown his way over a pretty short period of time, and these can bring parallel pitfalls to any sportsman in the extremely fledgling stages of adult life.
I have no hard and fast evidence to suggest that Parnell has fallen into any such damaging traps himself, but a one-match SuperSport Series suspension recently is bound to have got some tongues wagging.
It was shrouded in intrigue and secrecy – in fairness, these things often are -- with the Warriors simply citing “disciplinary reasons” and “an issue dealt with internally”.
Parnell needs to be closely watched, mentored and assisted, especially at a clearly embattled juncture for his cricket, at least statistically.
Maybe some intensive work, between Warriors engagements, with Proteas bowling coach Vincent Barnes, or cerebral old bowling hands like Corrie van Zyl or Eric Simons – psst, is that left-arm swingster of yesteryear Stephen Jefferies out there somewhere? – would work rejuvenating wonders.
Because Wayne Dillon Parnell could yet become a really good ‘un, and they don’t just grow on trees.
This mini-slump must be nipped in the bud …
