South Africa's preparations for Friday's second Test against Australia have been thrown into turmoil afterDaryll Cullinan withdrew following a pay row.

Cullinan, 35, walked out of the squad on Tuesday when his demand for a contract until next year was refused by Gerald Majola, chief executive of the United Cricket Board. Western Province left-hand batsman Graeme Smith, 21, was picked to replace Cullinan in the match starting at Newlands on Friday. It will be Smith's first international cap.

Selection convenor Rushdi Magiet said the batting order would probably be re-shuffled because Smith is an opening batsman, while Cullinan had been due to bat at No. 4.

Magiet said Cullinan had been a strong candidate to take over as captain if Shaun Pollock does not pass a fitness test on an injured side which kept him out of the first Test.

Vice-captain Mark Boucher led the side in Johannesburg when they were beaten by an innings and 360 runs, but Magiet said it was not certain that he would again stand in for Pollock, whose injury has not responded well to treatment. But with Cullinan out, Boucher will probably again take over if Pollock withdraws.

Majola said he was disappointed at Cullinan's attitude. "Daryll insisted that we give him nothing less than an A Category UCB contract until 2003 for him to play in this match instead of the Test match fee which is paid to non-contracted players. The UCB policy states that a player can be offered a contract in the middle of the season after he has played two Test matches or six one-day internationals in that season. Daryll does not fit those criteria.

"Daryll also demanded that he be given that contract until the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Our current player contracts expire at the end of April and we are not in a position to make an exception for Daryll."

Majola said he was disappointed that Cullinan had refused to play for his country under the same circumstances as other players who were called up to the national side.

"It is important for us to engender a spirit of national pride in our team and it is vital that players realise the honour of playing for South Africa."

Cullinan was said to have flown back to Johannesburg after discussions with Majola and Magiet. "Its a very sad state of affairs when people don't want to play for their country," said Magiet.

The Cullinan row brings into the open a situation in South African cricket where players are understood to be unhappy over political wrangling, with pride in playing for their country said by insiders to be waning.

Contracts are offered to players annually. Cullinan was not among those contracted last May because he accepted an offer to play for Kent in the English county championship. That meant he was not available to play in a series in Zimbabwe in September. At the time he indicated he still wanted to play for South Africa and would be happy to picked on a match fee basis.

Cullinan then suffered a knee injury which cut short his English season. He had an operation and only returned to action in November, missing selection for South Africa's tour of Australia. He was named in the Test side on Monday for the first time this season after making 86 while captaining South Africa A against the Australians at Port Elizabeth last weekend.

Revised team 1 Herschelle Gibbs, 2 Gary Kirsten, 3 Graeme Smith, 4 Jacques Kallis, 6 Ashwell Prince, 5 Neil McKenzie, 7 Mark Boucher, 8 Shaun Pollock (capt), 9 Paul Adams, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 Dewald Pretorius, Andrew Hall (12th man).

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd