Smith disappointed at Test c’ship delay

South African captain Graeme Smith said on Wednesday he was disappointed that the International Cricket Council had decided not to introduce a world Test championship before 2017.

“It’s a bit disappointing,” said Smith on the eve of the second and final Test against Australia at the Wanderers Stadium.

“I personally felt it wasn’t the right decision for cricket.”

Not phased

But Australian captain Michael Clarke said he was “not phased” by the ICC decision. ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat announced on Monday that the introduction of a championship had been pushed out from 2013 because of commitments to broadcasters and sponsors.

“Obviously the ICC have their reasons but five years is a pretty long time,” said Smith.

“You can skip a generation in five years. As cricketers you want the ICC to make the best decisions in the interests of the game and I’m not sure that that’s happened now.”

Much thought

Clarke said he hadn’t given much thought to the Test championship.

“I wasn’t really sure when it was due to start anyway. It doesn’t really phase me. If it can work in 2017 it’ll be fantastic but by that stage I think I’ll be watching from the couch.” The Australian captain said he believed his players would not suffer from the scars of their freak collapse to 47 all out in the first Test in Cape Town last week.

“We got rid of them once we left the change room. We had a really long chat after the game and made a pact to each other that once we left the ground we were going to look to this Test match.

“All the guys have trained well over the last couple of days . . .

we’ve got to have a red-hot crack to win this game and level the series.”

Smith said South Africa wanted to improve on their performance in the first Test where they trailed by 188 runs on the first innings but went on to win by eight wickets.

“We are focused on how we can improve,” said Smith. “We already saw that in the second innings. I want to see the graph going up.”

Motivated

Smith said the players were not taking anything for granted. “It’s our second Test match in seven or eight months and we’re really motivated to perform. “We have a lot of respect for Australia and we’re certainly not going to take our foot off the gas. We want to earn the right to win the series.” Smith said he expected Australia to bounce back after their second innings debacle at Newlands. JOHANNESBURG, AFP