By Max (@maxbjourno)
It has been a desperate few weeks for cricket. The arrogance, greed and stupidity – match them yourselves – of the three Pakistan players sent down for spot-fixing last week has once again tainted the sport we cherish.
And don’t get me started on the astonishing impotence of the ICC throughout a scandal that is far more widespread and far from over.
We need a tonic, an elixir to drag the greatest form of cricket back up to the hallowed status it should warrant. What’s that, a Test series between two of cricket’s great nations starts on Wednesday? Perfect! It’s only a two-match series? Oh.
We’ll just have to make the most of our truncated final series at the present Sofa Towers, and there is great hope that the rebuilding Aussies taking on number one pretenders South Africa will provide many a positive talking point over the coming fortnight.
The home side are fresh going on rusty - they haven’t played a Test match since January – but welcome back the classy Jacques Rudolph to the top of the order after his exile as a Kolpak player with Yorkshire.
Graeme Smith has given up the ODI and T20 captaincy to focus on Tests. He will partner Rudolph while Amla, Kallis, De Villiers, Prince and Boucher represent a tidy middle order on paper.
A greenish early season pitch in rainy Cape Town will encourage the best new-ball pair in world cricket: Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn. Also excited by a rare chance to shine in the modern day batsman-friendly game will be Ryan Harris and Mitchell ‘he bowls to the left, he bowls to the right’ Johnson.
The final pace berth in the Aussie XI will go to one of Peter Siddle, trundling Trent Copeland and Pat Cummins - the latest in an increasingly desperate list of Australia’s young saviours.
In a worrying sign of our times, 18-year-old Cummins has been centrally contracted and drafted into the Test squad having played more T20s (15) than First Class, List A and One Day Internationals put together (eleven).
The Sydney-born youngster will, if selected, cut his teeth in the toughest form of the game against the South Africans with almost no long-form experience whatsoever. What could possibly go wrong?
Nathan Lyon is the eleventh attempt to replace Shane Warne, and he will go up against South Africa’s spinning debutant, Imran Tahir, in a match that should be decided by pace unless the sun gets out earlier than expected at Newlands.
The Aussie batting picks itself for the first Test, although Ricky Ponting is under pressure for runs as the vultures circle over his outstanding international career.
Shaun Marsh is settled at number three, while Shane Watson will open alongside Philip Hughes, who surely won’t be given as much freedom by the South Africans as in the 2009 series.
Hughes scored a hatful of runs against the surprisingly unwitting Steyn and Morkel before his technique was mercilessly dismantled by England in the Ashes just months later in a grilling from which he has never fully recovered.
Will Smith remember how to construct a Test innings? Will Johnson be able to keep it on the island? Will Hendo get time for a good sleep? Find out tomorrow morning as we go live for ball-by-ball coverage from 8.15am GMT.