Sad farewell for Walsh

For Courtney Walsh, valiant until the end, it was a sad farewell to South Africa when he limped out of the final test at Centurion Park still needing three wickets to join the two other members of the elite 400 club: Sir Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev.

His return of six for 80 in the South Africa first innings took him to 397 wickets, or 22 this series at 18.63, leading wicket-taker by a long lbw shout for the ailing tourists as they limped from one defeat to another and unable to put match-winning scores together.

With Curtly Ambrose sidelined this match with a hamstring injury but retained for the one-day series, Walsh the second half of the vaunted pace attack heads for Jamaica tomorrow and possible surgery to correct a knee injury. Whether he will be ready for the Australia series which starts in six weeks time is another matter.

Walsh had hoped by the end of his series against South Africa to become the fourth bowler in test history to take 400 wickets: New Zealand all-rounder Sir Richard Hadlee was first to the mark and collected 431 in a career of 86 tests while Dev's 434 wickets spanned 131 tests. Walsh has so far played 106 tests and his career average is 25.38.

``It would be nice to go into the matches against Australia with 400 wickets next to my name,'' he said in Port Elizabeth. Now he heads home his long-term future in doubt as well as his chances to play in the World Cup.

In one of his last acts of chivalry in what is his last appearance at SuperSport Centurion Walsh patted Mark Boucher on the back after his first innings rescue act of 100 which did much to give South Africa the edge on a difficult first day's pitch and South Africa were 123 for six.