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Tahir: Clumsy thinking?

Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town – So Imran Tahir hasn’t got a South African passport yet, it has emerged. With the leg-spinner seemingly being touted as a solution to South Africa’s spin bowling problems on the looming Test tour of India, I can’t say I blame him.

Tahir was a nominal, initial selection for the Proteas squad for the final Test against England at the Wanderers from Thursday, before Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola announced that the selectors had jumped the gun as his qualification for the country had not been properly settled yet.

I say “nominal” because it seems the Lahore-born cricketer, 30, was always unlikely to crack the XI for the Bullring, and was simply installed to put a bit of heat on labouring specialist spin incumbent Paul Harris and “get familiar” with the national squad ahead of the two-Test trip to India.

Now he has been pulled from the Johannesburg squad anyway -- although presumably steps will be taken pretty swiftly to ensure he has all necessary paperwork in place with a view to the challenge of taking on the presently top-ranked Indians in their own environment.

The whole Tahir saga, in terms of his pledging of loyalty henceforth to South Africa, has been a weird and near-farcical one at times, reminding us, among other things, that credible leg-spinners are still viewed with fear, mistrust and conservatism in our game.

We have known for a long time – and with justifiable excitement among many observers – that Tahir, who is married to a South African woman, was planning to meet the requirements to represent the Proteas.

Nothing sinister in that, I believe: he has turned out for Pakistan ‘A’ but not at senior level for that country, played first-class cricket in South Africa for several years and also done notably well over the last couple of years for Hampshire.

Unfortunately he has been having to ply his trade in 2009/10 primarily for Easterns in the Provincial Three-day Challenge, where he is the runaway leading wicket-taker with 37 at 16.67, rather than for his current senior franchise, the Titans, where he has been limited to two SuperSport Series games because Harris (seven outings) has mostly been preferred as main spin option.

It is a great shame because, as much as anything, South Africa’s best domestic batsmen countrywide need exposure to Tahir’s tricky and rare art – perhaps this will be remedied as the “leggie” seeks fresh pastures with the Dolphins next summer.

My foremost fear over Tahir, however, is speedy resolution of his bureaucratic issues … because India is the very last place South Africa should contemplate blooding him at Test level.

Matters are only compounded by Tahir, should he get the nod, being thrown in dangerously “cold” considering his minimal deployment of late in South Africa’s premier first-class competition.

Indian batsmen positively butcher leg-spinners at home: that has been the case for many years and statistics bear this out in uncomfortably bright lights.

A respected, seasoned Indian critic who visited Cape Town recently, reminded me forcefully of the phenomenon, pointing out that bog-standard left-arm spinners, strangely, have been the ones to sow greater disorder in Indian ranks.

The sight of Indian batsmen confidently two-stepping down the track to leg-spinners, who traditionally find bowling in consistently good areas more difficult anyway, is enough to put the heebie-jeebies into them … so most modern-era ones have almost unanimously encountered only misery there.

Even the great Shane Warne struggled glaringly in India, averaging 43.11 over the course of three series there, against a stellar career average of 25.41 in 145 Tests (708 wickets).

Compatriot Stuart MacGill (44 Tests, career average 29.02) was never exposed to India on their soil, but in four Tests against them in Australia he averaged an unflattering 50.78.

The experienced Danish Kaneria of arch-rivals Pakistan has found no joy in India: in a 57-Test career average of 33.84, it swells to a shade under 40 there.

Nor will young Sri Lankan phenomenon Ajantha Mendis, unusually proficient at both leg- and off-spin, remember his lone Test in India late last year with any affection: he got 2/162 in 38 overs at Kanpur as India amassed a first-knock 642 all out in an innings victory.

England, who sporadically fielded leggie Ian Salisbury over the period between 1992 and 2000, also found out ruefully that “Solly” held no fears for the host nation in India: he averaged an ugly 76.66 over three Tests.

Now left-armers can be quite another matter: India have sometimes been thrown curiously off their stride by them, as evidenced by oft-maligned customers like England’s Ashley “Wheelie Bin” Giles and Nicky Boje of South Africa having some productive times in that country.

Giles (career average 40.60) brought it down to 33.00 in India in one series where his controversial, ultra-defensive leg-side line to the likes of Sachin Tendulkar got effectively beneath Indian skins generally.

And Boje famously bowled the Proteas to a maiden series win in India in 2000 with a second-innings “five-for” at Bangalore and series average of 15.71 – light years better than his 43-Test career average of 42.65.

The West Indies, a few weeks on, is where the Proteas stand to be infinitely better rewarded for bravely introducing the quirky trade of Tahir to their plans.

India might be madness.

Have the wise men really thought this through?
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