Monday, 13th August 2007 at 5:58 pm

Jacques Kallis dropped? World’s gone mad…

Not long to go until the Twenty20 World rolls into South Africa; reminder of that this weekend, with the South African squad being named. One or two minor surprises - no Boeta Dippenaar, depriving us of flamboyant 85-ball knocks of 20-odd - but the big shock was Jacques Kallis, left out of the 15-man squad for the international slogging challenge.

Now Feverpitcher is well aware that Kallis can bat like a sedated tortoise, and that inside his trademark Test match bubble he’s the very antithesis of the 20-over game. But Feverpitcher has seen the big all-rounder unleash an approach he usually keeps well hidden, when confronted with the necessity of an urgent assault, and as one of the cleanest strikers in the game - not to mention one of South Africa’s better death bowlers - we’re more than a little surprised that he’ll be spending the Twenty20 tournament on the golf course.

Not that South Africa don’t have a team capable of winning cricket’s definitive lottery: Smith, Boucher, Pollock, Kemp, Bosman, Bodi and both Morkels can launch cricket balls distances usually confined to continental air travel. There’s a fair spread of bowlers amongst the squad, although the capricious nature of bowling in Twenty20 make’s it a thankless task. So runs are needed, and plenty of them; Feverpitcher would have been just a touch happier with Kallis contributing a few of them.