South Africa will be hoping the coming days will mark a turn around in their cricketing fortunes when they kick off their tour of India with a warm-up match against a Board President's XI in Jaipur on Sunday.
Rarely has a sporting team carried an excess baggage of social transformation as do the South African cricketers who will play two Test matches on India soil -- their first in the country after a gap of four years.
The focus during the team's tour would not only be on cricket but also on the controversial quota system that has seen five non-white players being included in the 14-member squad.
The social and political shake up that the African nation has gone through in the post-apartheid era has seen black players earn Test caps on one hand and driven out equally talented white players on the other.
But the white community has come around to accept this as a practical thing as the country goes through a historic change. So much is at stake then that the current tour carries as much significance as did the team's first visit to India after gaining readmission to international sport more than a dozen years ago.
The bonhomie and goodwill atmosphere of the 1991-92 series, when Clive Rice led the team in a three-match one-day series, has however been replaced with anxiety and frustration now. The reason for that is of course the team's poor performance in recent times.
Ever since their premature exit in the World Cup in 2003, South African cricket has witnessed a steady decline.
There was the high point of Smith, who took over from Shaun Pollock as the youngest captain ever, hitting back to back double tons in England before the hosts managed to draw the Test series last year. But the show has generally been lacklustre otherwise.
It hit rockbottom when it received a 5-1 thrashing in one-dayers in New Zealand followed by a 5-0 mauling in Sri Lanka earlier this year. The last nail in the coffin was of course the first round ouster in the Champions Trophy following which the team came down in ICC rankings in both one-dayers and Tests.
It is an image in total contrast to the one associated with the South African teams of the past. It resembles little of the Hansie Cronje's side coached by Bob Woolmer who pioneered the 'Total Cricket' in the late 1990s.
Tomorrow's match would provide the visitors the perfect opportunity to start the tour on the right note before the start of the Test matches.
However, taming the Board President's XI, which consists of several fringe players, could prove to be a lot more difficult for the visitors, most of whom are too raw and have hardly any or no experience of playing at the highest level.
Of the 14 players, only Pollock and Jacques Kallis have been to India before. Adrian Le Roux, the physical trainer who formerly worked with the Indians, might give some insight into the cricket and culture of the subcontinent.
But the deciding factor could be how well the new coach Ray Jennings combines with the players and put into use all his experience in turning the struggling side to start in right earnest.
Jennings, who was the country's leading wicketkeeper but missed out on Test cricket due to the ban in the 1970s and 1980s, has the reputation of using innovative methods when it comes to motivating the players. The team has had five days during a pre-series camp in Pretoria to come to terms with 'Jennings' Ways'.
A two-Test series may be too short a time to judge a team's worth. But that is exactly the challenge Smith and his men face.
With regard to the Board President's XI, the focus would be on the three openers -- Gautam Gambhir, Dheeraj Jadhav and Sadagoppan Ramesh, while the middle order batsmen too could put pressure on the senior batsmen with some good performances.
The teams:
South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Jacques Kallis, Boeta Dippenaar, Justin Ontong, Jacques Rudolph, Shaun Pollock, Hashim Amla, Makhaya Ntini, Zander de Bruyn, Andrew Hall, Robin Peterson, Thami Tsolekile, Alfonso Thomas and Martin van Jaarsveld.
Board President's XI: Sairaj Bahutule (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Dheeraj Jadhav, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Hemang Badani, Venugopal Rao, Dinesh Mongia, Ramesh Powar, Shib Shankar Paul, Amit Bhandari, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Avishkar Salvi, Joginder Sharma.
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