***Official*** South Africa in England

[Richard]

Kallis has been poor if a bit unfortunate here.

 

[Richard]

Half-century in your 1st innings as captain.

 

[PavlovsDog]

Cracking shot to bring up his first 50 as captain.

 

[Perm]

Well done Kev, now show everybody what kind of captain you are. Less than halfway there at the moment son.

 

[Briony]

KP already showing Smith up. You pity SA that they lost his captaincy skills out. Bet the SA fans wish they could swap the two. Imagine how good SA could be then!

 

[stumpski]

KP already showing Smith up. You pity SA that they lost his captaincy skills out. Bet the SA fans wish they could swap the two. Imagine how good SA could be then!

I hardly think they would want to get rid of Smith though - only five days after one of his best ever innings.

 

[Briony]

I hardly think they would want to get rid of Smith though - only five days after one of his best ever innings.

A choice between KP and Smith is a no brainer though. The way I look at it, the former has him beaten in all attributes I can think of. He's much better looking, has a much better physique, is much taller, is a more athletic fielder, is a better bat, he's smarter and more articulate. He's richer and he has a pretty wife. Smith is fat, hasn't got anywhere near KP's talent, is slow and cumbersome in the field, is inarticulate and is by his own admission - desperate and dateless.

It's just unfortunate that the quota system squeezed the amazing KP out of the country.

 

[Spikey]

A choice between KP and Smith is a no brainer though. The way I look at it, the former has him beaten in all attributes I can think of. He's much better looking, has a much better physique, is much taller, is a more athletic fielder, is a better bat, he's smarter and more articulate. He's richer and he has a pretty wife. Smith is fat

Yep. Very important attributes those

 

[Perm]

KP already showing Smith up. You pity SA that they lost his captaincy skills out. Bet the SA fans wish they could swap the two. Imagine how good SA could be then!

The depth of batting that South Africa have is much stronger in their middle order than amongst their openers, so given the choice of Graeme Smith and Kevin Pietersen I think most fans would be happy with the status quo, as it would weaken their team significantly if somebody else was brought into the side to open alongside Neil McKenzie.

Also I fail to see how KP is showing up Smith, especially when one of them scored 154* in the last Test to lead his team to victory, and conquest over England at home for the first time since 1965. South African supporters should be perfectly happy with Smith's captaincy, he has lead them to series victories over all Test nations except Australia and Sri Lanka so far.

The last point of your post makes for interesting thinking though - imagine how good South Africa could conceivably be if Kevin Pietersen hadn't left and was in the side. I assume they'd slot him in at #4 and move Kallis up a spot, but both are fine batsmen and would likely do well batting at first-drop.

 

[andruid]

KP now has a god awful first chance average as England captain

 

[Perm]

A choice between KP and Smith is a no brainer though. The way I look at it, the former has him beaten in all attributes I can think of. He's much better looking, has a much better physique, is much taller, is a more athletic fielder, is a better bat, he's smarter and more articulate. He's richer and he has a pretty wife. Smith is fat, hasn't got anywhere near KP's talent, is slow and cumbersome in the field, is inarticulate and is by his own admission - desperate and dateless.

It's just unfortunate that the quota system squeezed the amazing KP out of the country.

I know you're extremely anti-South Africa, but try to come up with proper reasons to justify your arguments, not this rubbish.

 

[stumpski]

There's no bowler I want to see catches dropped off more than Gunther.

 

[Briony]

I know you're extremely anti-South Africa, but try to come up with proper reasons to justify your arguments, not this rubbish.

Well try to counter my arguments.

You know they make sense.

It's a shame so many are jealous of KP's genius.

 

[Perm]

KP now has a god awful first chance average as England captain

How? He's been dropped twice (admittedly the chance off Morkel sounded pretty tough), but both have come after passing 50.

 

[Perm]

Well try to counter my arguments.

You know they make sense.

It's a shame so many are jealous of KP's genius.

There is no point in countering arguments such as "he is better looking" or "he's richer and has a pretty wife" when talking about who is a better cricket player. I am a big Pietersen fan and you can quite easily make a good case for him being better, but it'd be much preferable if your case actually took into account things that are only relevant to cricket.

 

[Briony]

There is no point in countering arguments such as "he is better looking" or "he's richer and has a pretty wife" when talking about who is a better cricket player. I am a big Pietersen fan and you can quite easily make a good case for him being better, but it'd be much preferable if your case actually took into account things that are only relevant to cricket.

Well quite simply he's a better batsman, better fieldsman, better bowler and I'm tipping will end up a better captain. Is playing a better captain's innings than Smith yesterday for a start.

His much better physique is relevant. He prepares himself professionally for cricket; Smith doesn't. One only has to look at Smith's very poor physique to understand that he doesn't make the sacrifices in terms of his training and preparation that KP does. I think Kallis is in a similar boat.

 

[Richard]

How? He's been dropped twice (admittedly the chance off Morkel sounded pretty tough), but both have come after passing 50.

Don't really think the first was ever going to be caught but the second should have been taken.

He'd already played well by then though, as you say.

 

[James_W]

A choice between KP and Smith is a no brainer though. The way I look at it, the former has him beaten in all attributes I can think of. He's much better looking, has a much better physique, is much taller, is a more athletic fielder, is a better bat, he's smarter and more articulate. He's richer and he has a pretty wife. Smith is fat, hasn't got anywhere near KP's talent, is slow and cumbersome in the field, is inarticulate and is by his own admission - desperate and dateless.

It's just unfortunate that the quota system squeezed the amazing KP out of the country.

You think KP is better looking than Smith? Smith is one ***y guy, espescially when scoring a series-winning century.

 

[Bees]

Since we're going to be silly about it, Smith is better than KP because he's much more of a bad-ass, and is actually playing for his own country.

 

[Wiglad]

1st match as captain and a century, cannot ask for more than that.