Arthur raring to go

6 July 2008

Mickey Arthur cannot wait for the Test series to get under way at Lord's

South Africa hope two years of meticulous planning are about to come to fruition in the first npower Test at Lord’s this week.

Coach Mickey Arthur describes opponents England as a team “in transition” under an outstanding leader in Michael Vaughan.

But on a ground which has often favoured South Africa - and where their captain Graeme Smith made a double-hundred in a landslide victory on the last tour five years ago - Arthur’s charges are full of confidence their painstaking preparation will pay off.

“There is a special buzz. This is one of the tours we’ve been talking about as a group ever since the planning started two years ago,” Arthur reported, after rain had wiped out the last day of his side’s warm-up match against Middlesex at Uxbridge.

Smith was therefore prevented from batting twice in a match drawn, after both sides piled up 300-plus first-innings scores.

But Arthur is nonetheless satisfied that Smith, with only one innings behind him since his Indian Premier League hamstring tear, is - like his team-mates - ready for the significant challenge which lies ahead in the forthcoming four-Test series.

“I’m pretty sure we’ve done the work we need to have done - and I’m confident we’re right now,” added the coach.

“You can feel in the dressing room the boys are ready for the Test and just want to get cracking in the series now.

“We’re counting down the hours; I wish it was starting in two days’ time - that is how ready I feel we are as a group.

“Each day is delaying it. We just want to start playing now and get our teeth into the series.”

Umpires Steve Garratt and Michael Gough inspect the Uxbridge pitch before calling play off today

Buy this photo

Arthur and Co have targeted this summer as one of three successive high-profile assignments overseas - and given South Africa’s failure so far in the modern era to complete a series win in this country, perhaps the most important of all.

“This has been ongoing for two years. We looked at India in India - a series we’ve just come through - England in England and Australia in Australia,” Arthur said.

“They don’t come much harder than that as three tours in a row.

“We needed to get a team ready for that, and our process started about two years ago. I’m really confident we’ve put together a really competitive side.”

South Africa arrive with Smith the uncompromising general of a feared and still-emerging pace attack led by Dale Steyn and with Morne Morkel as potentially the deadliest weapon.

“I think the sight of Steyn and Morkel is going to be something special this summer,” Arthur predicted, adding only the caveat that both young fast bowlers will need to deal for the first time with the hype and attention which comes with such a major tour.

How well they do that may prove one of the keys to the success of a team who still have points to prove.

“South Africa have never won in England since unity, so it is something we’ve put pretty high on our agendas,” Arthur explained.

“The guys deserve to be tipped highly. But that counts for nothing - it’s about how we’re going to bat and how we’re going to bowl.

“That’s all we’re interested in.”

Arthur insists South Africa will not be overconfident against hosts he rates highly.

“I think England are a very good side at the moment,” he said.

“They are in a slight transitional period - probably where we were a year ago in terms of the make-up of their side and getting their combinations right, refreshing and bringing new faces in.

“But they’re a very, very good Test cricket team. They will take a lot of beating, and we are going to have to play really well.”