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Not the best of mates? (Gallo Images)
Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – Tensions clearly still exist between Proteas captain Graeme Smith and Kepler Wessels, the former skipper who has been serving recently as a national selector and occasional batting consultant.
Smith has been irked by the barrage of criticism from back home after South Africa bowed out of the ICC World Twenty20 against Pakistan at Gros Islet before the semi-final stage.
In a Twitter posting on Friday, he struck out at critics – and Wessels in particular, who still doubles as a SuperSport pundit.
“Find it amazing that Kepler can sit and say (we) should have picked a younger squad when he was one of the selectors who chose it! Unbelievable!”
In a separate posting, he added: “At least we own up to playing poorly. But all these so-called experts/ex-players … I’m not sure I see a winners medal hanging round their necks.”
There is a bit of a history of “awkwardness” between the pair, and it would seem Wessels’ various roles of late with the national team have done little to ease the situation.
When asked by this writer in an interview shortly before the Proteas left for the Caribbean how the “alliance” with Wessels had been working, Smith replied fairly cagily: “He has a lot of knowledge on the game, and is an interesting personality. If he’s got value to add he must be used.”
Wessels did not accompany the T20 squad to the event.
On a lighter note, “Biff” also nailed his Stormers colours to the mast, again via Twitter, in the Vodacom Super 14: “C’mon Scalla/Stormers this weekend. All the best boys. Here’s to a home semi.”
Cape Town – Tensions clearly still exist between Proteas captain Graeme Smith and Kepler Wessels, the former skipper who has been serving recently as a national selector and occasional batting consultant.
Smith has been irked by the barrage of criticism from back home after South Africa bowed out of the ICC World Twenty20 against Pakistan at Gros Islet before the semi-final stage.
In a Twitter posting on Friday, he struck out at critics – and Wessels in particular, who still doubles as a SuperSport pundit.
“Find it amazing that Kepler can sit and say (we) should have picked a younger squad when he was one of the selectors who chose it! Unbelievable!”
In a separate posting, he added: “At least we own up to playing poorly. But all these so-called experts/ex-players … I’m not sure I see a winners medal hanging round their necks.”
There is a bit of a history of “awkwardness” between the pair, and it would seem Wessels’ various roles of late with the national team have done little to ease the situation.
When asked by this writer in an interview shortly before the Proteas left for the Caribbean how the “alliance” with Wessels had been working, Smith replied fairly cagily: “He has a lot of knowledge on the game, and is an interesting personality. If he’s got value to add he must be used.”
Wessels did not accompany the T20 squad to the event.
On a lighter note, “Biff” also nailed his Stormers colours to the mast, again via Twitter, in the Vodacom Super 14: “C’mon Scalla/Stormers this weekend. All the best boys. Here’s to a home semi.”
