Powerade Chosen Column 5 - Makhaya Ntini

The two Tests against Australia showed that five day cricket can be very exciting and I hope this proved to the nation that the shorter forms of the game are not the only one’s worth watching.

It’s just a pity that there were only two Tests and I have to ask why we only played the Aussies, who are the team that we really want to play and the one that attracts big crowds to the stadiums, and now we have the Sri Lankans for three Tests and five ODIs.

I remember when I was in the national side we would be given a piece of paper at the beginning of the year telling us who we would be playing and when. It seemed like the ICC made those decisions and we were definitely never consulted. There never seemed to be much logic in the tour schedules and the only thing that was certain was that when we went to England we would play five Tests and about 10 ODIs and spend three months away from home.

The way it worked out, it would have been great to have had another Test against the Australians to get a series winner.

And, for me, Test cricket is what it is all about. I played over 100 Tests and I can remember just about all of them. I can’t say the same about the ODIs I played.

The same goes for the wickets I have taken. I can remember my first Test wicket – Sri Lanka’s Aravinda da Silva, caught Boucher, and my 300^th – Mohammed Sami of Pakistan, also caught Boucher - and all of the milestone wickets in between.  But I don’t remember my 50^th, 100^th and 150^th ODI wickets.

I always felt, as a bowler, that I needed the time and overs that I got to bowl in Test matches to be at my best. In a 50 over game you only have 10 overs, and it is less in a T20 game. If you don’t find your rhythm early on, or if the batsmen get off to a flying start off you, you are gone. There’s no chance to recover and you probably won’t perform when you come back later on either.

In a Test match, however, you have the time to recover if you have a poor start. The captain takes you off and you can think about what you did wrong and about what you have to do to fix it up when you are brought back.

In my case, I believe one of my strengths was my fitness and my willingness to always work hard to be at my best physically. So a long Test match suited me, and I could bowl plenty of overs, even in hot conditions, and that helped build my record. I never had that advantage in the shorter games, especially in night games. So the Tests were always more special for me.

Well, we have three Tests up front against the Sri Lankans now and I think it’s going to be exciting. It’s time to put the disappointment of the Australian tour behind us. Playing against sub-continent opposition is always special. They may not have the technical skills of the Australians, but they make up for that in passion and dedication.

And this is a Sri Lankan team that we don’t know much about. Murilutheran and Malinga are gone, and with them the special bowling attack that the Sri Lankans have developed in recent seasons.

Some of their senior batsmen have also retired, although Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Dilshan will be here. They, along with bowler Dilhara Fenando, are just about the only players left since I last played against them.

South Africa, on the other hand, has all its senior players available and I think that if we don’t beat this Sri Lankan team we will have to take a hard look at ourselves.

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