EARLY days, I know, but is Dominic Sibley the answer to England’s prayers – an opener who can dig in for the long haul?

There was a lot to like about the way he batted on Sunday and Monday to achieve his maiden Test century, and also the first England opener to score a century at Newlands since Sir Jack Hobbs in 1910.

Since Andrew Strauss retired in 2012, breaking up that so-solid partnership with Alistair Cook, England have tried umpteen permutations without finding the right combination.

But Sibley’s background convinced the selectors it was time to give him a try and that has proved a wise decision.

The most impressive statistic was not the amount of boundaries he struck, but the length of time he batted for his 133 not out – more than eight hours and facing 311 balls.

Cumbrian Ben Stokes produced the fireworks at the other end with a sparkling 72 from from 47 balls during their partnership, but over the innings it will have been Sibley’s innings which produced most satisfaction among the England management team.

Last season, he scored 1,324 runs in Division One of the County Championship with an average of 70 when no other batsman reached a thousand. Once again the selectors will have looked at his ability to stick around and accumulate those runs because during the season he faced 3,024 deliveries.

That was 50 per cent more than the next on the list, and in that he was in good company – Alistair Cook.

Sibley has had to switch counties to make the breakthrough, leaving Surrey after eight years in 2017 to join Warwickshire where he has quietly and effectively gone about his business of accumulating runs.

He actually holds the record for being the youngest batsman to score a double century in the County Championship.

He was 18, and against a Yorkshire side, in 2013, with seven current or future Test players in their ranks, he made 242.

Clearly the CV has been impressive, although a stutter in 2015 and 2016 saw a loan to Warwickshire and an eventual full move.

It has been a union which has been good for both club and player, and now England can benefit. The Second Test in Cape Town was only Sibley’s fourth and we should be looking forward to a long and profitable international career.

Probably the secret to his breakthrough was revealed by David Ward, the former Surrey pro who was head of cricket at Whitgift School for 21 years.

“What made him the player he is today is the basic will to bat time.

“If it was a 25-over game he would try and bat 25 overs, and the same for 50 overs, he would want to be there at the end.

“We see very, very few lads coming through at school level who are prepared to do that,” he said in an interview this week.

That’s a clue as to why he shaped so well at Newlands – and hopefully there will be more of those over the next ten years or so.

*Sports stars from various disciplines make good money playing the game of their choice.

So it’s pleasing to see a number stepping forward to help financially when there is a particular tragedy unfolding across the globe.

The horrific bushfires in Australia have cost lives, homes and thousands of wildlife species and the support from the world of sport has been encouraging.

Leading the way has been cricket legend Shane Warne, who has put up for auction his Baggy Green – the cap he was given when he made the first of 145 Test appearances in which he took 708 wickets.

That auction ends today but early estimates that it would smash the record set for the auction of Don Bradman’s Baggy Green (£225,000 in 2003) appear to have been well justified.

Tennis players have also been chipping in with controversial Nick Kyrgios offering 200 Australian dollars (that’s £106) for every ace that he hits in tournaments.

But I also liked the response of Romania’s world No4 Simona Halep who wrote on Twitter that she doesn’t hit too many aces so had adopted a different way of paying-up.

Every time she gives her coach Darren Cahill a hard time while she’s playing on court she will donate 200 Australian dollars – and going on past record that should accumulate quite nicely. Certainly earning more than Simona’s aces.

* Tom Pope is a Port Vale legend through his goal-scoring exploits in two spells at the club – but he’s proving an annoyance on social media.

It looks as though he might have gone too far this time and it has nothing to do with comments on football.

Ok, we can live with his suggestion that he would score 40 a season if he was up against John Stones every week. It’s understandable how he upped that figure to 50 after scoring at the Etihad on Saturday.

But when some fan asked him to predict the World War Three result, his response was pathetic and is facing an FA probe on it being anti-semitic.

What did he say: “We invade Iran, then Cuba, then North Korea, then the Rothschilds are crowned champions of every bank on the planet.”

The Rothschilds happen to be a wealthy Jewish family who have been involved since the 18th century in banking.

A crass, stupid comment which was deleted fairly swiftly but just underlined how some footballers should stick to football and avoid more worldly matters, when they feel the need to show how few brains they have on Twitter.