Rob Houwing

I don’t know about you, but I will be monitoring the 2008/09 SuperSport Series as closely as possible – given that ironically it isn’t televised, of course! – for any signs of a true new tearaway shock bowler or two.

The first-class competition starts on Thursday and already, by perusing some of the XIs or squads offered up for the first round, I have a sneaky feeling we’re going to see a fair bit of “same old, same old” when it comes to those who charge (or even just canter) in with gleaming new balls.

Of course, things happen in cycles and you can’t always expect fearsome head-hunters of the calibre of Allan Donald, Brett Schultz, Mfuneko Ngam or Nantie Hayward to announce themselves every summer, just as fruit farmers can’t always guarantee a robust annual haul from the trees.

And we are fortunate enough to already have in our midst genuinely international-class acts like Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, to ensure that at least at Proteas level, the speed-merchant situation ought not to present significant problems for the next four or five years at least.

That said, I think Steyn, ICC Test Player of the Year, needs to be extremely carefully managed to ensure he does not succumb to the ravages of over-bowling and consequent knots-reducing fatigue: there were some signs of that occurring a few months ago.

Morkel, meanwhile – and I’m sorry if I sound like a stuck record – remains some way from the finished article, as evidenced by his promising but still not wholly convincing showing in the Test series in England.

Loosens the screws

The really top-bracket fast bowlers are those who apply pressure fairly unrelentingly; Morkel still loosens the screws too much by going AWOL from an accuracy point of view, and this is a big season in terms of his need to tighten up while retaining his undoubted steep-bounce menace.

But once you examine the rest of the South African pace cupboard, you sense that there isn’t an awful lot coming through just at present.

Yes, the country appears arguably over-stocked with monotonously fast-medium (or sometimes more pertinently “medium-fast”!), 130km/h bang-it-in customers who rely too much on favourable domestic conditions for their scalps while lacking a little in subtlety, variety and cunning.

The struggle by the South Africa ‘A’ side on home soil to subdue their unexpectedly tenacious Sri Lankan counterparts appears to bear out my fear: the South Africans narrowly won the unofficial “Test” series more on the strength of their impressive batting than any genuinely compelling exploits with the ball, and then were tellingly thumped 4-1 in the one-dayers.

A few years ago, you would fully have expected any touring Sri Lankan side to be intimidated and ultimately undone by a trio or quartet of South African speedsters, but that did not occur this spring.

Ethy Mbhalati, Johann Louw, Lonwabo Tsotsobe? Decent enough cricketers, but not regular 145km/h customers, and unlikely to tickle ribcages in the manner England’s rejuvenated, four-pronged -- and significantly pristinely-conditioned -- strike force presently do at the highest level of the game.

There is plenty of time for Wayne Parnell to develop, considering he is only 19, and if this left-arm seamer can gain in strength and delivery velocity, he might yet become a fast bowler in the very fullest sense – it is too early to venture scientifically that he won’t!

Real handful

But toothcomb the squads thrown up for the earliest salvoes of the SuperSport Series and you don’t see too many other, intriguingly callow “express men” among them.

Yusuf Abdullah will be a bit frisky at times for the Dolphins, although I fear he may lack the height to blossom into a real handful, but you will also see plenty of activity from workmanlike old hands like Messrs Louw, Kent and Friend – not spectacularly lively.

For the Titans, stringbean Mbhalati, nearly 27, is unlikely to pick up much more in the way of gas; ditto Andre Nel, who has crossed the Hennops to play for the Lions henceforth but bowled at well-nigh granny pace in England. (Nel could yet have a future for the Proteas if someone tells him rather forcefully that 128km/h from the big fellow is absolutely not what they have in mind.)

Friedel de Wet remains nippy, by all accounts, but is 28 now and if he is going to take the big step up as a strike bowler it is going to have to be fairly soon.

Years of pounding in for franchise and country are clearly starting to take a toll on Makhaya Ntini, 31, and I don’t believe the Warriors are going to frighten any sides in the grievous bodily harm department.

 Nor, perhaps, will CJ de Villiers and Dillon du Preez for the Eagles, even if they will have no trouble getting into the wickets column in the right conditions.

Down in the Western Cape it’s also business as usual with veteran Charl Langeveldt and the enigmatic Monde Zondeki opening the attack and back-up coming from the roly-poly Rory Kleinveldt and Vernon Philander.

So yes, I’m hoping against hope that someone pimply and all-over-the-show, yet simultaneously torpedo-quick and outrageously self-confident, grasps the nettle in the SuperSport Series and reminds us that the South African pace factory has not, in fact, rather firmly shut its once-expansive doors…