The South African and Australian cricket captains are hoping to be able to do away with the 'super-sub' in the Standard Bank Pro20 match on Friday, and in the five one-day internationals.

The chief executives of the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided at a recent meeting that the super-sub rule should be scrapped. The super sub was introduced in an attempt to add extra excitement to limited overs cricket. However, the decision will only come into effect after the ICC board meeting in March.

"If the super-sub is not going to apply at the World Cup in 2007, then there doesn't seem any point in carrying on using it for four or five matches," said South African skipper Graeme Smith.

"I haven't discussed it with Ricky (Ponting) personally, but there have been approaches at management level, and I'm sure it will be discussed when we have our meeting with the match referee. We are also waiting for the ICC to let us know whether we can drop it at this stage."

Ponting agreed that there was little point in carrying on with the super-sub rule if it was going to be dropped very soon. "The sooner we can get back to playing the way we used to, the better," he said.

The captains also agreed that verbal abuse of players by spectators was part and parcel of every tour.

"We are very happy to be back home and playing in front of our home crowds," said Smith.

"We've played abroad for the past four months, and so it will be really good to play at home, and have the crowd support. We want the crowds to support us ? but we don't want them to step across the line of what is acceptable as was done to us in Australia."

Asked about the threat by Cricket South Africa's chief executive, Gerald Majola, to boycott the next tour of South Africa if nothing was done about the racial abuse the South Africans were subjected to, Smith said he was pleased that the cricket boss had come out in support of his players, but he doubted whether such a drastic step would be taken.

"I think he was just sending a very strong message," said Smith. "But they are researching ways of preventing it in the future, so hopefully it won't happen again."

Ponting said it was sad that a handful of spectators had spoiled what was otherwise a very good tour, during which more than a million people had gone to the grounds.

"We are expecting plenty of flak from the crowds," said Ponting.

"It happens all over, and we have found the best way to deal with it is to play very good cricket ? that usually keeps them quiet."

Pro20 squads:

South Africa:
Graeme Smith (captain), Loots Bosman, AB de Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Neil McKenzie, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock, Roger Telemachus, Thandi Tshabalala, Johan van der Wath

Australia:
Ricky Ponting (captain), Nathan Bracken, Michael Clarke, Stuart Clark, Adam Gilchrist, Brad Hogg, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Mick Lewis, Damien Martyn, Shane Watson