The obsession with 'X-factor' may cost SA

You would not figure Andrew Hudson for a bloke who approaches his duties as SA's selection convener in the same way that others seek out pornography.

But Hudson's explanations for some of his committee's decisions in the wake of the World Cup squad announcement sound suspiciously like what US supreme court justice Potter Stewart said, in 1964, about porn: "I know it when I see it."

Pornography, in cricket terms, is something called the "X-factor".

So while Ryan McLaren's significant others will be as disappointed as he is that he is not going to the World Cup, they will no doubt be relieved to know he is not a porn star. And while those close to Wayne Parnell will celebrate his selection to the World Cup squad, they might wonder what really goes on at all those training sessions.

These days, some players would seem to be selected not on the basis of whether they can bat or bowl but whether or not they have the "X-factor". What is this stuff, and how do you get it? Or is it code for, "Don't ask me why I picked him"?

The question is complicated by apparent aberrations. Farhaan Behardien is the walk-on extra, the guy who would not know pornography if it sat on his laptop. He has no "X-factor". But he does have "Y-factor". As in, "Why the hell was he selected?"

Herschelle Gibbs swung both ways. He was short of neither "X-factor" nor porn-star potential. At least, not if you believe certain sections of his autobiography.

For all this, we have to thank Gary Kirsten, the coach who first flung the X-word into cricket and a man who is to cricket what the pope is to porn.

Here's Kirsten on MS Dhoni promoting himself up the order during the 2011 World Cup final: "I knew straight away that he was going to win the World Cup for us.

"Because that's the individual he is. He has the X-factor and walks around with this presence."

And on Virat Kohli: "He is one of those cricketers with an X-factor who doesn't get himself out."

Explorer Mike Horn, who was involved in India's preparation for the tournament, went one better than simply having the mythical thing: "He was the X-factor. He was that little bit of extra kick we needed."

So, is the "X-factor" an attribute a person either has or is able to acquire, or is the person themselves able to embody the attribute?

Or is it a tactic, as in Kirsten's assertion in December 2012 that the South African team he then coached had gained an "X-factor" in tests by sending seven frontline batsmen to the crease?

Any or all of the above, it seems.

Kirsten has taken two teams to the No1 test ranking and he has won a World Cup. He knows what he is doing, and if some of us get stuck in the fuzzier bits of his logic that is not his problem.

But every porn star needs someone behind a camera to make them famous. Kirsten knows this better than most. Gibbs could not have done what he did without Kirsten grinding away at the other end. Hudson, too, has Kirsten to thank for his cover drive staying sexy in many memories.

Will the unkind omission of an unsexy, but solid, player such as McLaren cost SA at the World Cup?

We'll know it when we see it.