BioGraphy

With an unbeaten 222 in his debut Test innings, Jacques Rudolph vindicated those who believed that he had been a victim of reverse discrimination in South Afrian cricket. His record-breaking, unconquered 429-run stand for the third wicket with Boeta Dippenaar in Chittagong was a delivery of promise long after he had forced his way into the South African squad in November 2001 by sheer weight of runs in domestic cricket. A left-handed batsman who stands tall at the point of delivery with an upraised bat, Rudolph has pleasing footwork, balance and favours the cover drive. His Test debut was balm to the wounds Rudolph suffered leading up to his first entry to international cricket. Twice he was in line for his Test debut, and twice politics intervened. His first international experience came during the unofficial match at Centurion against India in 2001-02, in the aftermath of the Mike Denness affair. And two months later he was named in the side to face Australia at Sydney, but the UCB Board President Percy Sonn vetoed his selection on the grounds of racial discrimination, and the Cape Coloured Justin Ontong made his debut instead. Since then, however, he has become a fixture in the South African middle-order, accumulating his runs in an undemonstrative manner. An unbeaten 102 saved South Africa from defeat in a classic at Perth at the end of 2005, but 125 runs from six further innings, against the same opposition in a 3-0 whitewash at home, have done little to boost his claims. Andrew Miller April 2006

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