ARE the Dolphins keeping a good local player out of their team by signing Sanath Jayasuriya for the season? Possibly, but let’s see how the Sri Lankan star can benefit the team from Durban. First, the Dolphins have lost one of their best prospects, Jonathan Vandiar, to the Lions, who seem incapable of producing (or keeping) their best young players. After all, they let Graeme Smith slip away to Western Province. Second, along with Jayasuriya, the Dolphins have lured young wicketkeeper Bradley Barnes from Cape Town. Barnes now has a chance to get serious game time because he would have had to wait in a queue at Newlands. Finally, someone like Jayasuriya can help mould young players in the Dolphins squad, just as Malcolm Marshall did when he spent a few seasons with the Durban team. Shaun Pollock, for one, benefited enormously under the late West Indian great. Western Province did the same with their new generation (of whom Jacques Kallis was a member) when they got Desmond Haynes to play in Cape Town. Free State made one of their best signings when Franklyn Stephenson joined. He was part of a programme to lift the standard in the province and they have not looked back. Jayasuriya has been signed for only one season, but it’s enough time to pass on some cricket nuggets - and they might be able to persuade him to return. The Dolphins, according to their CEO Cassim Docrat, will play in the same group as the Rajasthan Royals, Middlesex and Western Australia in the upcoming Champions League. The Titans, who won the tournament in South Africa, will play in the same group as the Chennai Super Kings, Victoria of Australia and Sialkot of Pakistan.
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