Gloves may impact on De Villiers' batting, says Read

By Dave Bracegirdle

Mark Boucher's recent injury has served as a reminder that the life of a wicketkeeper is far from easy. Struck in the eye by a flying bail, Boucher had to undergo surgery and was forced to withdraw from South Africa’s current tour and announce his retirement from international cricket.

One man who can sympathise with the 35-year-old is Chris Read, a fully paid-up member of the 'keepers' union'. “Mark’s a fantastic keeper and has had a fantastic career,” said the Nottinghamshire captain. “It’s a real shame that he has gone out of the game in this way. I think this was possibly going to be his last series for South Africa and to not actually get out on the park in the Test matches will be a real disappointment for him.”

Having seen pictures of the incident, Read feels that the South African was very unlucky. “It was a bit unusual but it’s not unheard of. Other guys have suffered from a broken bail but to get you right in the eye and to actually cut – what is a very delicate organ – is not pleasant at all.”

Despite the injury highlighting the dangers of standing up to the wicket, Read says he won’t be changing his methods. “Even with a helmet on there’s still enough space for a bail to sneak through – the helmet is there really to protect you from a ball flying up off the bat or kicking up off a foothold or something, so from my point of view it doesn’t change anything that I will or won’t be doing.”

Read remembers an occasion when he was struck and admits that, unlike with Boucher’s blow, there was a funny side to it. “I was hit in the teeth during Twenty20 Finals Day at Nottingham. Swanny was bowling and the ball clipped the top of the pad flap and flew off my wrist into my mouth.

“Fortunately it wasn’t a fixed tooth – it was a crown – but it caused a bit of amusement seeing me scrambling around the footholds trying to find my tooth.”

The South Africans have called up Thami Tsolekile to replace Boucher but are likely to had the gloves to AB De Villiers for the opening Test, a decision that Read feels may have a knock-on effect.

“It’s going to be a big ask for AB but he is an immensely talented cricketer, let’s be clear about it. He’s kept wicket very recently in one-day competition for both South Africa and in the IPL, so in terms of his wicketkeeping ability I think there’ll be no questions over that. The only question mark for me woukd be over how keeping wicket in a Test match impacts on his batting.

“He is a formidable batsman and one of their key guys in the middle order, so I think if he’s in the field for any length of time it may have any impact on his batting – I guess we’ll just have to wait and see”

Like most observers, Read feels a thrilling duel is in prospect. “It should be a cracking series between two evenly-matched teams,” he added. “England have had a fantastic summer in all forms of the game so far, and they’ll be looking to continue that, but they are going head-to-head with a very fine side.
 
"I think the big match-up we are all looking forward to is seeing how the England seam attack fares against the South African one because they have got some very fine fast bowlers.”
 

Date: 17/07/2012 21:40:00 by Dave Bracegirdle
In: Today | Nottinghamshire | England |