The genius of Gibbs not lost

The batting rejuvenation of Herschelle Gibbs continued at the weekend with a match-winning innings for his Australian team and a $100000 contract in the Bangladesh T20 league.

The former Proteas opening batsman, who turns 38 next month, smashed a 46-ball 71 for the Perth Scorchers on Saturday against the Melbourne Stars in the semifinals of Australia's T20 league, the Big Bash. The Scorchers play the Sydney Sixers in the final on Saturday and both finalists have qualified for the Champions League T20, to be played in India during October.

Gibbs returned to the Scorchers team on Saturday having missed two matches because of a heel injury. Despite having played fewer matches, he is the second-highest run scorer with 302 and could even overtake the leader, Travis Birt (345), whose side the Hobart Hurricanes are out of the competition.

Gibbs has had a formidable run in the Big Bash, amassing the most half-centuries in the tournament - four in six matches.

He said that for the first time since his school days at Bishops he was having a solid net on match days. During his professional career, and especially with the South African ODI team, this was never done.

"I am also being more circumspect about the bowling," said Gibbs, who in the past was accused of a reckless approach to opening the batting.

Since losing his South African contract, Gibbs has devoted himself to T20 cricket and has sought to become a travelling batsman, getting games where he can. His prolific run-scoring in Australia has now won him a lucrative contract with the revamped Bangladesh T20 league.

After failing to attract a bid in the first round of the Bangladesh auction, Gibbs was picked up by Khulna Royal Bengal in the second for $100000.

So for the 20 days of the league's duration next month, he stands to make close to R800000.

On his current form, Khulna have got themselves a bargain. Pakistani allrounder Shahid Afridi topped the auction with $700000 and will play for Dhaka, but will miss some of the games because of national commitments against England and will receive only a proportion of his selling price.

Chris Gayle went to Barisal for $551000.

Gibbs will team up with Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya and West Indians Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Fidel Edwards in the Khulna side for the event, which starts on February 9 with matches being played in Chittagong and Dhaka.

Gibbs will be one of two South Africans in the league after Proteas spinner Imran Tahir was bought by Duronto Rajshahi for $50000.

A total of 111 overseas players and 80 local cricketers were put on auction, with teams given a maximum budget of $2-million and being able to buy no more than eight overseas players.

No Indian players were included in the auction. One of the interesting acquisitions was Ireland's wicketkeeper-batsman Niall O'Brien, who will join Gibbs at Khulna for $80000.