Doug Bollinger

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Rob Houwing

Cape Town – If the sledging has started, you know a cricket Test match involving Australia must be just around the corner.

And if certain parts of their Wanderers first Test jigsaw fitted into place for the tourists in the drawn warm-up match against the SA President’s Board XI in Potchefstroom at the weekend, perhaps their famous “mental disintegration” habit needs a bit more fine-tuning among the largely inexperienced squad.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Monday that Aussie paceman Doug Bollinger became embroiled in a slanging match with heckling spectators at Senwes Park on Sunday.

“The spectators on the hill, who barely shut up all day, had been in Bollinger’s ear about how a leg-side delivery should have been called wide,” the Herald’s Will Swanton reported.

“At a mostly deserted ground, Bollinger’s response was heard by one and all. Pausing at the top of his run, Bollinger shouted at the three men: ‘It’s a four-day game – there are no wides, ya nuffies’.”

Exhaustive research by Sport24 indicates that “nuffy” in Aussie slang refers to someone who may be intellectually challenged or, in similar vein, “a bit of a peanut”.

Which might have been reasonably on the mark by left-arm speedster Bollinger (an impressive 3/29 on the day) had he remembered one thing: he was taking part in a three-day game!

Writer Swanton noted: “If Bollinger was incensed by his crowd treatment at sleepy Potchefstroom, he’s in for a rude shock when he gets to the famously volatile Wanderers (for Thursday’s Test) …”