ICC KO 2000 a sprint, not a marathon

Shaun Pollock's clearly been watching the Olympics. "Most one-day tournaments," he says, "are like 400 or 800m races. You have to pace yourselves in them. This one (the ICC KnockOut 2000 tournament which starts in Nairobi next week) is more like a 100m dash. We'll have to come out of the blocks sprinting."

To this, however, he added a rider. "Our problem recently is that we've been starting slowly."

Pollock's South Africans will be in Kenya to defend a title they won, a little surprisingly, in Bangladesh two years ago. In 1998 the South Africans were without Allan Donald, Gary Kirsten and Pollock. In the final, where they beat the West Indies by four wickets, they went against type by using four spinners (Pat Symcox, Nicky Boje, Derek Crookes and Mike Rindel) to get through half of their overs.

This time around the South Africans are likely to present a more familiar front. Two spinners, Boje and Shafiek Abrahams, have been included, but with Donald back in harness and the likes of Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener, Roger Telemachus and the skipper himself all probable starters, South Africa are likely to go with what they know best.

"When we were in Nairobi a year ago the pitches were a bit slow to start with, but they quickened up after a couple of games," recalls Pollock. "I wouldn't be surprised is that was the case again this year."

In 1998 Bangladesh hosted the inaugural tournament but did not take part. This year, however, both Bangladesh and Kenya in an 11-team competition. There will be three preliminary round matches before the quarterfinals and throughout, defeat means instant elimination.

As a result of last year's World Cup, South Africa have been seeded directly into the quarterfinals along with Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand and Zimbabwe. South Africa's likely opponents in the round of eight are England who have Bangladesh as their first round opponents.

It remains to be seen whether England can carry the resurgent form they discovered against the West Indians during the northern summer, but if South Africa can get past them, the reward will be a semifinal meeting, probably, with Australia.

"Australia are obviously the team to beat," says Pollock. "They're the World Cup champions, aren't they? But we've done well against them this year and if we catch them in the semis, we'll fancy our chances."

Quite how the South Africans will arrange their batting is a matter of some conjecture. Daryll Cullinan is to be left behind for this campaign (although Jonty Rhodes, who skipped the Singapore tournament in August, is back). It is not clear who will fill Cullinan's number four spot, although South Africa are spoilt for choice.

Without even considering the option of Lance Klusener, Nicky Boje or Mark Boucher being used up the order as a pinch-hitter, South Africa have Rhodes, Neil McKenzie and Boeta Dippenaar all candidates to anchor the middle order.

Rhodes, you feel, might be better suited at five or six, where his experience and ability to get the scoreboard moving could come in handy in the closing overs, but there might also be an argument for Kallis to be allowed to move down a position, particular if he is expected to fill in with his full quota of overs as a bowler.

Whatever the case, the South Africans have had a month off to freshen up for the summer ahead. There will be tours by New Zealand and Sri Lanka and to the West Indies. Eleven Test matches and any number of one-day games lie ahead. It's going to be, as Alan Border liked to say, a lot of hard yakka.