Cape Town - Proteas Men's convenor of selectors Victor Mpitsang is hoping to sit down with a host of national team hopefuls at next week's CSA T20 Challenge in Gqeberha.
Although the Proteas Men's Test squad will be in New Zealand preparing for the two-match series against the world champions, there have been a plenty of performances in the recent rounds of the CSA 4-Day Series that have excited Mpitsang and the national selection panel.
The batters have certainly taken responsibility with Sibonelo Makhanya (Titans), Jonathan Bird (Western Province), Ryan Rickleton (Lions) Stiaan van Zyl (Rocks) and Rudi Second (Warriors) all striking centuries this past weekend. Equally, the bowlers have toiled well with particularly the spinners such as Kyle Simmonds, Siyabonga Mahima and Simon Harmer stealing the limelight.
Despite the format changing to T20's at St George's Park, the players will have the additional motivation to deliver more with both bat and ball due to another ICC T20 World Cup being held in Australia at the end of the year.
"It has been really encouraging to view the scorecards of the last few rounds of the CSA Four-Day Series in regards to both batters and bowlers," Mpitsang told IOL Sport.
"It's great to see the batters getting 100's all around the country and also the spinners taking responsibility of bowling teams out, especially on the last day. We are looking forward to having a couple of chats with the players face-to-face in Gqberha where we will all be in a bubble. It's much better than on the phone."
WP's David Bedingham would certainly have been one of the players Mpitsang and his co-selector Pat Moroney would have consulted as the 27-year-old is the leading run-scorer in the 4-Day Series with 509 runs at 63.62.
However, Bedingham will not be in action for WP in the T20 Series as he is set to return to United Kingdom this coming week.
"David will be flying back to England this week. He has a three-year contract with Durham and is in the process of qualifying for England and needs to spend a certain amount of days in the country as per the regulations," Bedingham's agent Arthur Turner said.
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Does that then rule out Bedingham, who also topped the run-scoring charts in the English County Championship last season, being selected for the Proteas?
"Two years ago David started a five-year process of attaining British citizenship which required applications for passports etc and plenty of the paperwork has been done already. But technically he is still an overseas player at Durham like Simon Harmer at Essex and Duanne Olivier at Yorkshire so theoretically he could still be selected for the Proteas, but there has been no communication from CSA's side."
Mpitsang was disappointed to learn that the former SA U19 star would not be playing in CSA's T20 competition.
"It is correct that I haven't spoken to David as yet. We were planning to speak to him next week in Gqberha to find out out the details of his contract with Durham because our understanding is that he has chosen to qualify for England," Mpitsang said.
"We know that he is a quality player and would really have liked him to play in the local T20s especially this being a World Cup year. Saying that there are plenty batters that have put up their hands like Ryan Rickleton for instance... He scored a 90 in the first innings in the same game against Province and then played with great maturity in the second innings to save the game with an undefeated ton."
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