It's monsoon season in Mozambique, it's planting season on the steppes of Mongolia, it's hurricane season in Florida - and in cricket (if you ask Proteas fans) it's almost the start of giant-felling season in Australia.

The Aussies, led by Ricky Ponting, do command healthy respect and, to me, evoke images of a duel to the death between a mongoose and a cobra. The Aussie cobras are deadly. They don't merely defeat their adversaries, they humiliate them. Ask Anil Kumble and his men, the Aussies finished them off to such an extent that they battled to recover for their subsequent series against the Proteas and only managed to desperately scramble (by hook or Kanpur pitch crook) a drawn series in the end.

In 2008 Graeme Smith's Proteas are the agile mongeese. They are undoubtedly the underdogs and, I'm sure, very happy with that label which sometimes offers camoflague for mortal attack.

'If Ponting and his mates are dishing up more Pattinson then the Proteas are REALLY in for a treat'


Proteas fans charting the course Graeme Smith has navigated through 2008 are pleased with their team's progress thus far, successfully passing Pakistan, the West Indies, New Zealand, Bangladesh and England (and a positive draw in India). They are also happy with what has turned out to be a perfect warm-up for Australia in England.

Darren Pattinson in particular merits a special mention as Proteas fans reckon their despatching of the ''Aussie'' is a harbinger of things to come and an veritable Aussie hors d'oeuvres (bushtucker, I think they call it in Oz!)

The ''grubby'' Pattinson was tucker for Graeme Smith and the lads. Mmmmm! My oh my! If Ponting and his mates are dishing up more Pattinson then the Proteas are REALLY in for a treat. More chocolate sauce, please!

Smith does seem to have developed an insatiable appetite for runs and Pattinson just whet his appetite for the Aussies. I can hear his tummy grumbling: ''More Aussies, more Aussies! Bring 'em on!''

Amongst the rest of the Proteas squad, Jacques Kallis's waistline is showing sufficient capacity to swallow a couple of Aussies. In fact, the entire team looks like a swallow's nest of hungry mouths to feed, chirping: ''Runs, runs, runs - fetch, fetch, fetch Ricky, fetch!''

After Pattinson, Proteas fans hauled out their abacuses and struck one off. Just ten more to go! And I predict Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Andre Nel and Makhaya Ntini will be softening and tenderising them for the pot! I predict a waltz to the ICC No.1 slot for the South Africans.