NEIL MANTHORP: Sport selection headache for Proteas
The jostling for places in the World Cup squad will be fascinating over the next six months, but nobody wants to talk about Amla’s future
By Neil Manthrop
Selection in sport can be a bitch. Spiteful, unpredictable and mean. In a perfect world the best players earn the right to be chosen and all is fair in love and war. The cream rises to the top. Except sometimes it turns sour at just the wrong time, and timing can be everything when it comes to making the starting XI or even the squad. The jostling for places in the World Cup squad will be fascinating over the next six months, and it will not only take place during the 10 ODIs against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the first three months of 2019. Sparkling or dismal form in the new T20 League (if and when it happens) will be hard to ignore, as will the attitude and approach of the contenders. Christiaan Jonker blew his chance to impress when he came to the crease in Bloemfontein at 49/4 and blasted an inappropriately risky 25 from 19 balls before perishing to a nasty swipe. Or did he? Coach Ottis Gibson is encouraging a positive, fearless approach in which counter-attack features prominen...
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