South Africa's first-class season starts on Thursday, October 7 with a number of question marks about the ability of the new format to meet the challenges posed by heavier demands of an international programme and added exposure of players of colour through the quota system.

Centurion (South Africa) - In a year where the game has in the last six months been top-heavy with limited overs slogs and where the World Cup held centre stage along with a series of satellite tournaments, the decline in batting standards has become a noticeable and worrying feature. Which makes the unveiling of this summer’s new SuperSport Series format tomorrow all the more important, especially in a season which embraces the first serious movement in the United Cricket Board’s transformation policy, along with the first challenging steps into the millennium allied with the promotion of North West and Easterns to the A Section.

Divided into two sections the brave new world approach has been designed to lift batting standards which even Peter Pollock, the retired convener of the national selection panel, described last season as generally disappointing. At the time he was highlighting the erratic form of batsmen outside the group of UCB contracted players. For the next three seasons at least we have a system where the 11 teams are divided into two pools with Northerns in Pool A and seeded seventh with their first match today against neighbours Easterns at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, once joint headquarters with Berea Park of the old North Eastern Transvaal.

Sharing Pool A are Eastern Province, Border, Gauteng and Griqualand West. Pool B has Natal, Free State, Western Province, Boland and North West, an odd collection and on last year’s form the weaker of the two groupings. As Graham Ford, the new South Africa coach, underlined this week the players have much to play for in terms of recognition: the Sri Lanka A tour as well as the England tour and the trip to India will give players the chances they need to develop their game and improve levels. The players must be aware of the opportunities they have and that should make a major difference in their approach to the first stage of the new season, he said.

The new format of the competition and the competition for places in the side makes for an exciting start. At least Northerns go into their opening game at Willowmoore Park today well prepared and fresh from a month of intensive pre-season activity although Peter Kirsten, the coach, expressed some disappointment with the side’s batting performances in the two matches in the Cape. Although Johan Myburgh and Gerald Dros put together innings of note, Dros’ century against Eastern Province in Port Elizabeth showed where he has benefited in part from his experiences in Ireland this year where he played for the Irish side in the NatWest Trophy. His driving, always a powerful weapon in his strokeplay armoury, was of high quality while Myburgh has shown that he has learnt to tighten his attack brand of batting which made him the youngest South African to score a first-class double century. Kirsten, a world-class batsman in his day, has been impressed and pushing the teenager into possibly the tricky No 3 slot in the order is the sort of challenge the young man with his confidence should enjoy.

Northerns bowling is based on the pace, swing and seam of an attack which must rate among the top three in the country: Steve Elworthy, Greg Smith and David Townsend provide a trio of cut and thrust which Easterns, lacking in overall experience might find their A Section debut one they may want to forget in a hurry. Even Ray Jennings, the Easterns coach, agrees the side is short of a couple of senior players, with or without their West Indies hired gun Phil Simons who arrived yesterday while Dennis Smith being preferred to Ivan Pistorius for the wicketkeeping post. In the other A Pool game David Terbrugge’s appearance for Gauteng on a pitch which has often dented the spirit of some of the country’s finest bowlers will be monitored while the form of the candidates in the two Pool B matches will give the selectors something to chew over. Free State are at home to Boland and in Potchefstroom we have rookies North West facing what appears to be a rejuvenated Natal side with all their stars.