Date-stamped : 17 Oct97 - 18:23


17th October 1997

Another injury blow for South Africa

Own correspondent

They must have been thinking "it can't get any worse", but,
incredibly, it did for South Africa today.

All-rounder Jacques Kallis was ruled out of both the second test
and the rest of the test series today. He has been taken to the 
Imran Khan hospital in Lahore where his appendix was removed.

Kallis is now another entry on a growing list of injuries for the
South African touring party.

During the first test Brett Schultz injured his shoulder and
flew home to South Africa when that match was concluded.
Immediately prior to the second test Daryll Cullinan, Dave
Richardson and Allan Donald sustained injuries.

It was feared that Cullinan had a broken bone in his right hand.
This transpired to not be the case, and the batsman was declared
fit, but Donald (quadricep) and Richardson (hamstring) both
failed fitness tests. Coach Bob Woolmer was also confined to bed
with 'flu.

Mark Boucher was flown out as a cover for Richardson, but as
things currently stand South Africa have just 12 fit men and two
test matches to play. The team management have announced that
Kallis will not be replaced, and it is expected that he will be
fit for the quadrangular one-day series that will follow the 
3rd and final test match.

Luckily South Africa have not had to name their team yet, and
so Kallis' illness, whilst unwelcome, is not as disastrous as it
would have been if the match had started today as per schedule.

It is expected that Adam Bacher will drop down to number 3 and
that Andrew Hudson will open the batting with Gary Kirsten.

Paradoxically it is now possible that Richardson may in fact
play in this match. He received intensive treatment on his
left hamstring today and will undergo an other fitness test
tomorrow morning.

<END> Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)