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Is it the end of the line for Shaun or is that just Pollocks?

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Cricket-mad Andrew Hughes looks at the career of Shaun Pollock and wonders whether it's time for the great bowler to return to the Test arena

Two bowlers have defined post-apartheid South Africa. Alan Donald was the spearhead, but Shaun Pollock was his foil, a ruthless assassin unpicking batting line-ups with patience and control. The once fiery-headed youth could now pass for a shorn-haired Henry Fonda, his gnarled and frowning concentration the result of many long years charging into the wind. His approach is slower, his footsteps heavier, his speed often dips below 130kph now. But that cast-iron action still runs with smooth solid efficiency, as fine a piece of bowling engineering as you're likely to see.

After Donald's meteor burnt out, it was Pollock who carried the bowling. And it was Pollock who retrieved the gauntlet of captaincy from the dirt where Hanse Cronje left it, serving his country without complaint, even after he was made the scapegoat for the disastrous 2003 World Cup. At 34, his mastery of swing and cut might have guaranteed him another four or five seasons in England's green pastures but in the land of the cheetah, pundits grow restless for the thrill of speed. So it is that a man who has amassed 412 Test wickets at 23.19 finds himself out in the cold. If he doesn't play in the series decider with West Indies in Durban on Thursday, he will have completed a year without Test cricket, time that is such a precious commodity at the end of a career.

So why has he been pushed aside? Well the rise of spinner Paul Harris has subtly altered the balance of the team. With one less bowling position available and Pollock, Makaya Ntini and Andre Nel all the wrong side of thirty, you can hardly blame the selectors for wanting to look at their options. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel are younger, quicker, hungrier and, like savannah predators, the selectors have fallen on the oldest and slowest.

But have they got the right man? It is true that statistically, Pollock is in decline. At his peak in 2001, his bowling average was 19.86. Since losing the captaincy it is 28.18 and over the last two years, 32.75. But a fading Pollock is still pretty effective. Certainly more effective than Andre Nel who has averaged 40.41 in the last two years and is lucky to retain his place. Coach Micky Arthur is a fan of Nel's fiery style. South Africa, like Australia, seem perpetually tempted by the prospect of a battery of fast bowlers. But the dangers of prioritising speed over control are readily apparent. In the First Test against the West Indies, Steyn, Nel and Ntini were ineffective, their pace dissipated in a flurry of no balls, lollipop bouncers and misplaced aggression.

But it seems a decision has been reached. Though there is talk of Pollock's importance for the tour of England this summer, it is an indignity for a player of his calibre to take such a minor role, the flow of his illustrious career dribbling to a trickle, hanging on for just one more Test cap, shuffling into obscurity. Yet Pollock's stoicism and faith may not predispose him to petulant retirements. Few would have blamed him if he had chosen to unleash a few volleys in the press over his demotion. That he has chosen not to do so and kept his anger private in the interests of team harmony is a measure of the man.

Certainly he is unlikely to find a more favourable stage to show off his magic one more time than Kingsmead, a ground he knows so well, where the enervating humidity, cloud cover and, if the theories are correct, the tidal patterns all contribute to a heavy swing-inducing atmosphere. With a rain-interrupted preparation, the pitch will most likely be soft and slow, batting will be tricky and Pollock should be in his element.

And while the West Indies were gutsy and committed until the fourth afternoon at Newlands, the loss of Chris Gayle is a sapping blow to their resolve. They are big outsiders at [9.4]. For those West Indians who might seek statistical shelter in the number of drawn Tests at Kingsmead, it should be said that four of the six draws since 1992 were rain-induced and with very little rain forecast over the next week, the draw, currently available at [4.4] is an unlikely saviour. Backing South Africa odds on is not the road to riches but this time it is difficult to argue with their current odds of [1.48].

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