It won't be a breeze, says Arthur

The ICC Test rankings aren't much use to man nor beast, but they might yet help South Africa steer clear of mental pitfalls when their Test series against the West Indies starts at Sahara Oval St George's Park in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.

Graeme Smith's team is widely expected to cruise to victory against the Windies, and who could blame them for believing the hype?

The West Indians are, after all, as yet unsure whether Chris Gayle - who is battling a hamstring injury - or Dwayne Bravo will captain them at St George's Park.

They are also no doubt still feeling the psychological blows inflicted on them by South Africa A's 10-wicket win in their tour match in East London on Friday.

It wouldn't have helped their confidence to realise that the stars of that show were two players who haven't proved themselves at international level: Justin Ontong, who scored an unbeaten century, and Monde Zondeki, who bagged eight wickets in the match.

But Mickey Arthur, for one, isn't putting too much store in all that.

"I was very pleased that Monde bowled very well, that Justin, Neil McKenzie and JP Duminy spent some time at the wicket, and that Johan Botha bowled very well in the second innings," Arthur said yesterday.

"It was good to see our reserve strength doing so well, and that gives us confidence going into the Test. But warm-up games are very different from Test matches.

"We know from when we are on tour that warm-up games are played with a totally different intensity, and we certainly won't be looking too much at that result.

"Besides, they didn't play Jerome Taylor, Chris Gayle, or Darren Powell."

Nevertheless, the Windies are not ideally placed to go into a Test match against the second-best team in the game, which is how South Africa will finish the year in the ICC rankings.

To put that into perspective, consider that Smith's side began the year in fifth place.

Their upward surge has come on the back of four consecutive series wins. The jewel in that tiara is their triumph in Pakistan in October, which outranks the wins they achieved in home series against India, Pakistan and New Zealand.

A win in the rubber against the West Indians will be lumped into the same category as their other successes on home soil, if only because - as Arthur made plain - all eyes are on a bigger prize.

"We intend to cement our place at this level, and go further," he said. "We have set our goals and they are realistic goals, and they culminate in us aiming to take the number one spot when we play Australia this time next year."

This will be construed as dangerous talk in some circles. It was Arthur himself who just a week ago spoke of "respecting your opposition highly, and respecting the game".

"I've seen teams come short by walking in there with grandeur and promising more than victory," he said then.

A short while after Arthur made that sensible observation, South Africa were five for four in the second over of their Standard Bank Pro20 match, which the West Indies won by five wickets.

In the wake of that lesson, many will be watching on Wednesday for the slightest suggestion that the South Africans are taking their opposition anything less than entirely seriously.