Cricket: South Africa Have Engaged Tennis Champions to Prepare for England's Pace Attack

South Africa have engaged help from the 1997 Junior Wimbledon tennis champion as they prepare to face England's pace attack.

Wesley Whitehouse, who won a match at Queen's Club this year, took to the nets in Pretoria this week, standing on the bowling crease and sending down a barrage of short-pitched tennis balls. "It was [coach] Ray Jennings' idea," Gerald de Kock, the Proteas' media manager said. "After the slower and lower pitches in India he felt it was important for the players to get used to the sharper bounce they would experience at home."

The first Test, which begins on Friday, is being played at Port Elizabeth, one of South Africa's more sluggish wickets. Even so the presence of the world's top fast bowler, Steve Harmison, in England's ranks has been enough to prompt such an unusual measure.

Back in England, Leicestershire have signed the South African batsman Hylton Ackerman. The 31-year-old joins on a three-year contract under the Kolpak ruling after having his contract terminated by Gauteng.

"Playing county cricket in England is something I have always wanted to do and I am really excited about this new challenge," said Ackerman, who has four Test caps. "Gauteng have been very good about it and my contract with them will be terminated on March 31. I will be heading to Leicester as soon as possible after that. My father played for Northamptonshire, so I am delighted to have finally been given the chance to follow in his footsteps." Last year the Foxes signed another ex-Protea, the slow left-arm bowler Claude Henderson.

The England and Wales Cricket Board was last night undecided between two rival offers for television rights to the sport, with even those in the county game split on the issue. The dilemma of whether to hand media rights exclusively to BSkyB or to split them between the satellite broadcaster and Channel 4 was top of the agenda during the first of two day-long meetings at Lord's.

With Sky offering £60m per year to show all home Test matches, one-day internationals and the county game, the ECB has to decide whether to sell all the rights exclusively to Sky or accept less money for the increased exposure afforded by terrestrial TV. Under the joint bid, Sky would share home Test matches with Channel 4 as well broadcasting one-day internationals, county matches and Twenty20 cricket. It is worth around a third less to the ECB.

Worcestershire's chief executive Mark Newton said that he was firmly on the side of the Sky deal, arguing that most young cricket fans have access to the coverage. "Satellite television is watched more by younger people than older generations and it is now in six million homes, I believe, which is a sizeable audience," he said.

Sussex's chief executive Hugh Griffiths argued it was essential to maintain the reach of a free-to-air broadcaster. "Test matches on television are a hugely important shop window to attract a big audience into cricket. The more people that can watch, and that means terrestrial, the more people will come," he said.