Smith on the mend for the Newlands clash

South Dakota is a long way from Newlands, but South African captain Graeme Smith will nonetheless fight his own Battle of Wounded Knee in the shadow of Table Mountain in three days' time.

Smith wrenched a knee while fielding in the first one-day international against the West Indies in Centurion on Sunday, leaving Mark Boucher to take over the captaincy and lead South Africa to a comfortable six-wicket win.

The second match in the five-game rubber will be played in Cape Town on Friday, and while the Proteas have named an unchanged squad for the clash there will be concerns over Smith's condition.

The original Battle of Wounded Knee, which took place in South Dakota on December 29, 1890, saw 500 US Cavalry troops mow down 146 Sioux Indians in what has since been termed a massacre.

Smith's situation is, of course, not remotely close to life or death. But it certainly has given the nation something to talk about.

"Hello, Johan speaking," said the man who answered when the Cape Times rang what used to be Smith's cell number.

"Sorry, man, it's not Graeme," he said. "But when you speak to the oke, please ask him to give me shout; I want to find out how his knee is doing."

Cricket South Africa made the right noises on Monday about Smith having "shown encouraging improvement overnight to his knee injury" and that he "is likely to be fit to start Friday's match".

"It's not as bad as we were expecting it to be at first," said team physiotherapist Shane Jabaar. "It was a good thing that he came off the field when he did, because that allowed us to intervene aggressively.

"If he improves as much as he did last night, he should be fine to play on Friday."

Be that as it may, the selectors thought it wise to retain a bulky squad of 15 players.

"Ordinarily we would prefer to have a slightly smaller squad," said selection chief Joubert Strydom. "But we have a number of niggles in the squad in addition to Smith's injury and we feel it is prudent to have the additional depth."

Also on the dodgy list are Herschelle Gibbs, who has a calf problem, Andre Nel and his painful neck, the slightly hamstrung Dale Steyn, and Justin Ontong, who is battling a wounded knee of his own.

It would be cruel luck indeed if Smith was forced to the sidelines so soon after displaying some of the most dominating form he has shown in years during the Castle Lager Test series.

His 147 in the third Test in Durban was a vital part of South Africa's innings victory, but the 85 he made at a blistering pace to hasten his team's seven-wicket win in the second Test in Cape Town was one of the most breathtaking performances delivered by any batsman anywhere in several years.

Similarly, here's hoping Ontong won't be undone by injury in the afterglow of his superbly mature 79 not out on Sunday. The out-of-form Gibbs, too, won't want to have to factor in a sore calf as he tries to remember what his feet are supposed to do at the crease.

At least South Africa don't have the West Indians' problems, what with captain Chris Gayle being shipped home because of the hamstring injury that has hobbled him throughout the tour.

"Given the most recent prognosis that I will require at least another two weeks of recovery before I could even consider picking up a bat again - furthermore being declared match fit - I have been granted permission by the West Indies Cricket Board to return home to Jamaica to concentrate on getting better," Gayle wrote in his diary on website Cricinfo.

"I had already been feeling quite frustrated at just sitting around and having to watch my teammates battling out in the middle without any contribution from me.

"This injury update only made me feel worse. I therefore spoke to team management and WICB chief executive Dr Donald Peters, who was in South Africa, and he expressed the view that it would be best for me to head back to the Caribbean immediately and focus on recovering fully."

He added: "Sitting on the sidelines was really beginning to affect me."

Dwayne Bravo, who is himself nursing a side strain, will take over the captaincy. He has, in fact, been doing the job since the second Test.

But Gayle's sad fate remains a sore point, a bit like a knee to the groin for the already limping Windies.