Captaincy crisis for South Africa as Pollock pulls out of second Test

Only hours after Daryll Cullinan walked out on his country's Test team, South Africa reeled under another blow as Shaun Pollock was forced out of the side for the second Test against Australia starting at Newlands on Friday, leaving the hosts with a captaincy crisis.

"Shaun has not recovered to a point where he could bowl at full pace or for a sustained period," said South African team physiotherapist Craig Smith on Tuesday night. "Shaun had a scan yesterday which showed he hasn't healed enough and he tried to bowl in the nets this afternoon, but he still felt it. We were always dealing with a side strain, which is an injury that takes several weeks to heal and we were being optimistic about having him fit for this Test match. I would have to say that Shaun is doubtful for the Durban Test too, but we will have to assess the situation as we go alon." Smith added.

It has now become clear that Cullinan, who withdrew himself from the Test side after failing to come to terms with the United Cricket Board, was earmarked to take over the captaincy in the absence of Pollock. Without either, the South Africans do not know who will captain the side on Friday, just three days ahead of a Test match that, effectively, could decide the world Test championship.

Uncapped Andrew Hall will replace Pollock in the Test team, joining Graeme Smith, who had been brought into replace Cullinan, and Dewald Pretorius as debutantes, but in perhaps the most damning confirmation of the disarray in which South African cricket now finds itself, coach Graham Ford told The Natal Witness on Tuesday: "You'd think they (the national selectors) would at least talk to me if they were considering Daryll as the captain, but once again I've been kept in the dark ... I've been informed Graeme Smith is replacing him, but I still haven't been told anything about the batting order or who will replace Shaun as captain."

Ford said that despite assurances that he and the captain would be involved in the selection process, he was still in the dark as to the strategy South African were expected to adopt in the second Test match.

"I get phoned the night before the selectors meet to hear my views, but I never get to explain these or justify them with cricketing reasons at the selection meeting," he is reported to have said. "I cannot discuss my views with the selectors and I don't even know if my opinions are properly put across to them. I always just get told afterwards that the selectors `unanimously disagreed' with them."

With Pollock falling out and Cullinan snubbing his Test recall, the captaincy is likely to go to either Mark Boucher, the vice-captain who led South Africa to an innings and 360-run defeat at the Wanderers just over a week ago, or Neil McKenzie.

Boucher is understood to have been a reluctant leader at the Wanderers while McKenzie, although having captained the South African under 19 team and his province, Northerns Titans, was left out of the side towards the end of the VB Series in Australia. He cannot be entirely certain where he stands in the selectors' minds.

With precious little communication between the selectors and the team, with the side losing its senior players on almost a daily basis, with no captain, the suggestion that South Africa are theoretically involved in a series which would decide the world championship has become utterly farcical.