Thami goes in search of home comforts

It is a debate that has been rumbling on over here since last week when the host selectors named their squad for the First Test. And it became more interesting still with the suggestion the selectors had been leant on.

According to one report, there is good reason to believe Boucher had been picked by South Africa's four-man panel - including outspoken coach Ray Jennings - but then replaced by Tsolekile following the intervention of United Cricket Board president Ray Mali.

The truth, say Mali and chairman of selectors Haroon Lorgat, is that the squad was not 'finalised' before the president's involvement.

"It is normal procedure that the selectors pick their team and when they have finished their deliberations they consult the president before announcing it," said Mali. "We included a number of issues, including that of the wicketkeeping position. I am not prepared to be a rubber-stamp president. I have a responsibility to debate issues with the selectors."

A 'quota' system did operate in South African domestic cricket until a couple of years ago, positively discriminating in favour of "players of colour". That was the reason new England player Kevin Pietersen left Natal to qualify for a new country with Nottinghamshire.

That system no longer operates and, officially at least, it never applied at Test level. But every non-white player picked for South Africa is always open to the suggestion that he has been fast tracked. Even Makhaya Ntini, now a world-class paceman, had to live with that accusation in the early days and, in the current squad, the same applies to batsman Hashim Amla and Tsolekile.

But in the case of Tsolekile there is the added complication that he may have been picked for the tour of India principally to teach Boucher a lesson. The implication was that South Africa's record-breaking keeper had become a disruptive influence. Then, last weekend, the debate switched to whether two Tests overseas represented a fair chance for the new gloveman.

No matter how many different ingredients have gone into the mix, Tsolekile will have to handle huge pressure in Port Elizabeth.

As a child in the Cape Town township of Langa, he was a dashing footballer first and later an outstanding hockey player who appeared at full international level, scoring on his debut. But cricket offered him the best opportunity to make a career out of sport. As a batsman, he broke almost every schoolboy record in the Cape and he captained a South Africa Under-19 side containing today's international skipper Graeme Smith.

Despite all his successes, Tsolekile still lives with his mother in a middle-class area of Langa. But he is already an inspiration to many. Given a good home debut here he could become a hero all across South Africa.