South Africa pace bowler Friedel de Wet will miss the fourth and final Test match against England after suffering a recurrence of a back problem in the third Test in Cape Town last week. "Friedel won't be training with us this week and, sadly, it's the long-term problem with his back again," said coach Mickey Arthur yesterday. "I really feel for him, it happened in the fifth over of the first innings in Cape Town, but he came in and gave it his all with injections and a serious back injury for another 20-odd overs. It speaks volumes for him."
De Wet's absence means left-armer Wayne Parnell, who has played nine one-day internationals but is yet to make his Test debut, is likely to be brought into the side for the series finale starting at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Thursday. England lead 1-0, but despite only needing a draw to win the series they are desperate to finish with a victory at the Wanderers. "We didn't come here to draw a series; we came here to win one," said wicketkeeper Matt Prior. "This is nowhere near a comfort zone.
"The coach [Andy Flower] had a long chat with us this morning and was pretty adamant on that. "We don't want to be the nearly men. We want to be guys that go back saying, 'we've had a fantastic winter - we won the one-dayers and we've won the Test series', not, 'we nearly won the Test series'. "Watching the guys train, everyone has taken that on board. "This team is going out to win this Test match, not to hang on to a draw or try to scrape through.
"If we can go back 2-0, that would be a dream come true for all of us." Meanwhile, Leicestershire have completed the signing of Australian batsman Brad Hodge for next season's Twenty20 campaign. Hodge, 35, had two successful seasons at Grace Road in 2003 and 2004 before playing with Lancashire from 2005. Hodge, who retired from first-class cricket last month, was part of the Foxes' Twenty20 Cup-winning team in his second spell at the club and is a favourite among fans after scoring 302 in a championship fixture against Nottinghamshire.
Leicestershire chief executive David Smith said: "I am delighted that Brad is returning to Leicestershire CCC. His Twenty20 record is outstanding. He is the world's leading run-scorer having scored over 2,300 runs in 73 matches, as well as taking 31 wickets. "At 35 years of age, Brad will bring a wealth of experience to next summer's Twenty20 campaign." * With agencies