Nicky Boje
Former South African spinner Nicky Boje talks about the upcoming series and the strengths of the two sides.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Assessing the India-South Africa series
Looking ahead to South Africa’s tour of India, former South African spinner Nicky Boje assesses how the series may play out. Our reporter caught up with the colourful spinner to get his opinion on the much anticipated series…
What are your thoughts on South Africa’s upcoming tour of India?
It will be interesting to see what kind of wickets will be prepared for the South Africans who are coming over to India. Both the teams are on high spirits at the moment as they have both done really well in the recent past. So it is going to be probably one of the best series yet…
Do you have any advice for the South African spinners?
I think that they just need to keep working hard when they get over here. They just need to work hard with Mark Boucher the wicket-keeper and work out quickly what pace to bowl at in order to get the best turn out of the wicket. So they just need to back themselves and work hard.
Who according to you are the players to watch out for?
In the South African team there are some guys who have been to the sub-continent before. I think Jacques Kallis is our Tendulkar. And then of course there is some young talent in the pace bowling department with Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and they have got Neil McKenzie back in the batting line up with Graeme Smith so it will be important for them to have good starts.
Do you think that there will be a lot of pressure on the young bowlers (Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel) now that Andre Nel is out?
Yes, but both of them have done quite well in the recent past so I think that they are high on confidence and that is important. Both of them can swing the ball which you need if you come to the sub-continent so it will be good to see how they go against some of the top quality batsmen in the world. They have had a month in Bangladesh getting used to the subcontinent conditions so that is good preparation for them too.
Do you think that the team has done well under Graeme Smith's captaincy?
Yes, I think that the areas that they have done well is in the fact that they don’t chop and change the side much now. It is a more settled team now. So if you have got a settled team then the guys perform much better.
You have played a lot with Gary Kirsten and he is the new Indian coach on his first assignment with the Indian team. What do you have to say about that?
Gary is an awesome guy and I think that he will do really well with the Indian side. He has got fantastic man-management skills and that is important to have as a coach. And most importantly he has experience. He had played over a hundred Test matches, he has scored plenty of runs, he has played all over the world and he can just provide that knowledge to the players. He is a great guy who is easy to talk to and easy to listen to, and i think that he will fit in perfectly!
One area where South Africa scores ahead of India is in their fielding. Your thoughts?
Yes, South Africa has always been a very good fielding side and they have got some good slippers in there and then of course they have AB de Villiers who has taken over as the new Jonty Rhodes at backward point. They are a very good fielding side overall and it is an important area that has to be constantly worked on for any side…
India has just got back from a successful tour of Australia and South Africa has been doing fantastically well too. So this will be a really great series to watch. What do you think of this?
Yes, they are both two sides that are playing good cricket at the moment, both sides have got some quality players and it is going to be good to watch. I am really looking forward to watching the series!
