Plaatjies' injury woes

Cape Cobras captain Justin Kemp would love to have fast bowler Francois Plaatjies fit and firing for the new season, but the Oudtshoorn-born paceman is injured again.

Plaatjies, who had surgery on a groin injury in the off-season, could not complete a warm-up game with the South Africa A side in Sri Lanka at the weekend, and has been replaced in the squad by the Titans' CJ de Villiers.

"I had a chat with coach Richard Pybus and it seems Francois has had a recurrence of the (groin) injury," Kemp said on Tuesday.

"We'll have to have a look when he gets back. Francois bowling at 150km/h is a different animal; we need that kind of thing. We must get him right... he must be in good nick."

Meanwhile the Cobras have been confined to indoor nets at WPCC, but Kemp is satisfied that squad members have been building up to a good level of readiness.

"We've been hitting balls for over a month now, our conditioning is top-drawer, and guys have been training in the gym for four months.

"We've been seeing a lot of JP Duminy and Dale Steyn was at the nets yesterday.'"

The Cobras and Western Province and Boland players will be playing a couple of limited overs matches in Robertson and Worcester in the next fortnight, while the franchise players will also do a four-day hike in the Tsitsikamma area starting this weekend.

Doing 16km of trekking per day will certainly give the squad members plenty of time to bond.

Kemp will do the first two days of the hike, then make his way to George where he will join the Proteas squad for a fitness camp.

"I'm happy to be back in the mix. I had a good limited overs season with the Cobras, and I'm feeling confident. I still believe I have some really good years of cricket ahead of me, but my first focus is to try to get the Cobras to be the best franchise in the country.

"It would be awesome if I got an opportunity (with the Proteas), but if I play well for the Cobras, that sort of thing will look after itself."

The Cobras will kick off their season with a SuperSport match against the Knights (formerly the Eagles) in Kimberley starting on September 30, but Kemp is not sure if players like Duminy and Steyn will be available for the game.

The Proteas duo will be joining the national squad in the first week of October ahead of a home ODI series against Zimbabwe.

"I think it would be good for all the national players to play (the first SuperSport matches), to be honest. They are not going to have much competitive cricket before the Zimbabwe series," Kemp said.

The Cobras will play the Dolphins in a four-day game in Maritzburg in mid-October as final preparation for their four-day campaign.

Kemp said discussions were being held with opener Alistair Gray and wicketkeeper Ryan Canning about their involvement since neither was contracted for the new season.

Canning's spot will likely be taken by new signing Dane Vilas, but Kemp sugggested it was no bad thing that Vilas would be pushed by a quality player like Canning. "We are trying to create a lot more pressure for places,"said Kemp.