Thursday, 14th December 2006 at 10:58 pm

That’s a wrap

Was it the selection of Paul Adams, named in the squad of 15 despite sporadic provincial cricket over the last couple of years? Was it head selector Haroon Lorgat’s comments that South Africa doesn’t have a world-class spinner? Or was the endless rotation and uncertainty of the national spinner’s berth just too much for Nicky Boje? A combination thereof would appear the most likely - a combination that has seen another slow left-armer fall out of the national equation. Claude Henderson, Paul Harris, now Boje; a small pool of choice just got considerably smaller. Which leaves us with perennial stop gap Robin Petersen, the promising but very young Thandi Tshabala, Adams, and makeshift offie Johan Botha. Was Boje a Warne or a Murali? Certainly not. But as a holding spinner with a dangerous role in the lower order, he was an honest competitor in a dark age for slow bowling in South Africa - and he’ll leave more of a gap than he’ll probably be given credit for.