Klusener on Zulu warpath

Lance Klusener, aka 'Zulu', was raised on a sugar farm near Eshowe in South Africa, learning the subtle ways of speaking the Zulu language in which he is now fluent. He is also a fluent batsman.

Hong Kong fans witnessed that first hand as the 1999 World Cup Player of the Tournament demolished Sri Lanka and then India on the opening day of the 2002 Cathay Pacific/Standard Chartered Hong Kong Sixes yesterday to power South Africa into the Cup championship round.

Unlike his language skills, Klusener's batting is more straight-forward. He showed that his deeds with the bat did not follow his way with words. Instead of finesse, he uses brute force on the field. In a duel, his weapon of choice would be the bludgeon over the rapier.

The 31-year-old Klusener, discarded from the Test squad by the South African selectors, hit six sixes and five fours in scores of 29 and 34 against Sri Lanka and India respectively. What is more ominous is that he was unbeaten on both occasions. The hint of more refined slogging will be in the autumn air at the Kowloon Cricket Club today. Defending champions Pakistan had better watch out for his three-pound bat.

'I like this game. It finishes before I get tired. It is a great concept and is living up to all the expectations I had,' he said. South Africa also have great expectations - winning the 2002 title and the US$80,000 winners' purse. 'We came here to win and have started well. It was a great day in the office. We knew that to get into the Cup competition we would have to win two out of our three matches. We have done that.'

South Africa have one more preliminary round game left - against the United Arab Emirates this morning - before they get down to serious business. If there is any drawback with the competition, then maybe it is the fact that the scheduling sees two pool games carried over to the second day, leaving the event with an inconclusive finish at the end of the first day.