How did talent like this get away from SA?

Where have all the fast bowlers gone?

It was the subject of a recent article by former South African spinner-turned-TV-commentator and columnist Pat Symcox, and it seemed he was left scratching his head.

He really didn't have any answers, beyond observing that the annual under-19 provincial tournament consists of 10 teams, each of which has at least three fast bowlers.

That's 30 a year. Over, say, a five-year period, says Symcox, that's a healthy bucketful of talent. So where have they gone?

If Symcox doesn't know the answer, I certainly don't.

But I can tell you where one, who was born in Johannesburg on July 30 1979 and who grew up in KwaZulu-Natal, has gone.

He is 24-year-old Chad Blake Keegan, who was educated at Northlands Primary and DHS and, with any luck, is headed for Michael Vaughan's England team in the near future.

One of the mainstays of the Middlesex county side's attack for the past two years, he is spending the next five weeks at the England Cricket Board's Academy at Loughborough.

But, as he qualifies to play for England only next year, he won't be touring with the Academy squad.

His invitation to join the squad's seven-week training camp was issued by academy director Rod Marsh, who is also an England selector. News of the young fast bowler and dashing middle-order batsman's progress up the cricketing ladder in England comes from his proud uncle and Durban North fitness expert, Anton de Chalain, whose sister is Chad's mother. The Keegan family emigrated to the UK in 1999, settling in Henley-on-Thames, where Chad was chiefly instrumental in the Henley club winning their league and gaining promotion.

Ever since, for Keegan it's been up, up and away. The gangling schoolboy who became something of a legend at DHS Old Boys when he started playing first league senior cricket, mainly as a batsman, at the age of only 14, was an instant success in the fast bowling department on his arrival at Middlesex.

In 2001 he helped the county side to a memorable victory over the touring Australians in a one-day match. In 2002 his eight-wicket haul in the match against Worcester helped gain Middlesex promotion to the County Championship Division 1.

This year has been a great one for Chad in the County Championship. He was second among wicket-takers to Mustag Ahmed, and the championship's leading fast bowler.

He took five wickets in an innings on three occasions and, against Leicester, he took nine wickets. Wisden voted Keegan Middlesex player of the year. An aggressive batsman, he was credited with one of the biggest sixes of the year in his first 50 at Lord's.

"For all his good progress over there," says his uncle, "he hasn't forgotten his roots. He still attributes much of his success to his school coaches - Barry Mayer, Nigel Cowley and Geoff Mace. His early interest in the game, he says, was kindled by Northlands headmaster Duncan Rankin - a major influence, as he put it in a recent letter to his family here".

Certainly. South Africa's cricket authorities would do well to make every effort to ensure that, in future, potential big fish like Keegan aren't allowed to get away.