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Rob Houwing
I am certainly not staking my house – or even the bumpy driveway that needs rebricking - on the Proteas coming home with the 2011 World Cup trophy.
The squad which will do duty shortly on the Subcontinent is arguably the least convincing on paper of any South African one in five previous, luckless post-isolation stabs at it.
I will not revisit in major depth here the obvious strengths and some weaknesses among the 15-strong party named by Andrew Hudson this week, suffice to say that I believe kingpin batsmen like AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla are going to have to come off to a riotous degree and a revered strike factor like Dale Steyn is going to have perform monumentally well in unfavourable conditions for his trade too.
Long-serving captain Graeme Smith, apart from his own important burden at the crease and the technical demons he sometimes wrestles, will also have to juggle his strategic balls very astutely to help negate various drawbacks in the composition of whatever combos, frankly, he leads out during the ridiculously ultra-marathon event.
I can’t help fancying that all of India (most notably), Sri Lanka, England and maybe even Pakistan – perpetually crisis-embroiled but a surprise factor on so many ICC major event stages – will be better-equipped than the Proteas at the Asian jamboree, with unsettled Australia level-pegging with them at the very least.
As I write South Africa are a humiliating 2-1 down in a home series against a depleted India – yes, supposedly fishes out of water until a few enticing weeks’ time for them! – and in grave danger of losing it, as they did last summer’s main bilateral ODI series against England.
Shh, then, could this possibly mean the Proteas are strangely in a pretty good space a month out from CWC 2011?
In a casual post-match chat in the Newlands media centre on Tuesday, former SA batsman and increasingly sharp television commentator HD Ackerman only half-jokingly raised this very scenario with me.
His words were to the effect of: “If there’s going to be some results angst in the ranks, rather let it be now.”
Let’s face it, whatever the validity of that old “choker” tag, South African teams are invariably touted among the front-runners for World Cups -- but probably, conspicuously, not this time.
If I were Smith, Corrie van Zyl and the various supplementary team shrinks, I’d be banging that very drum: “We know we’re an imperfect article; let’s aim to have filled the cracks by the time we get to the World Cup. Let’s also use likely underdog status to our advantage.”
Already selection chief Hudson has pointedly, but not unjustifiably, conceded of the squad: “It has some way to go.”
The team is displaying a split personality – and then some – in the current series against the Indians: moments of heartening brilliance being followed by flashes of rank ineptitude, and vice versa.
When beanpole Morne Morkel humiliatingly let a ball through his grasp on the boundary for four at an advanced stage of the Newlands nail-biter, and not long afterwards took a quite blinding overhead catch, it somehow summed up where the team collectively has been at, of late.
Without all those rough edges, and some better aid from Lady Luck, the Proteas might conceivably even be 3-0 up against India and contemplating dead-rubber affairs at Port Elizabeth and Centurion. And we’d probably all be feeling rather more positive about the higher mountains ahead.
One-day cricket is a weird, cyclical beast. I’m thinking, for instance, England’s rollercoaster experience of the past three years or so.
In 2008, after losing the home Test series 2-1, their 50-overs side immediately atoned by thrashing the Proteas 4-0 in the NatWest Series. One-day cricket had long suffered through not commanding enough “priority” status in that country; things were looking up.
But only one season later, Australia provided a gruesome reality check by downing the despised “Poms” 6-1 in the NatWest Series of 2009.
Back to square one for England, then? No, not quite: they confirmed fresh seeds of limited-overs promise and commitment by claiming the ICC World Twenty20 title in the Caribbean in 2010, a little against many tipsters’ expectations.
Don’t get me wrong: deep down, I do fear some real strain for South Africa on the Subcontinent.
But this tournament, as much as anything, will be all about teams peaking and showing relish at the right time, from the quarter-finals onward.
Warts and all, the Proteas really ought to be among that bunch for the frantic last furlong, eh?
Rob is Sport24's chief writer
Disclaimer: Sport24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on Sport24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Sport24.
I am certainly not staking my house – or even the bumpy driveway that needs rebricking - on the Proteas coming home with the 2011 World Cup trophy.
The squad which will do duty shortly on the Subcontinent is arguably the least convincing on paper of any South African one in five previous, luckless post-isolation stabs at it.
I will not revisit in major depth here the obvious strengths and some weaknesses among the 15-strong party named by Andrew Hudson this week, suffice to say that I believe kingpin batsmen like AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla are going to have to come off to a riotous degree and a revered strike factor like Dale Steyn is going to have perform monumentally well in unfavourable conditions for his trade too.
Long-serving captain Graeme Smith, apart from his own important burden at the crease and the technical demons he sometimes wrestles, will also have to juggle his strategic balls very astutely to help negate various drawbacks in the composition of whatever combos, frankly, he leads out during the ridiculously ultra-marathon event.
I can’t help fancying that all of India (most notably), Sri Lanka, England and maybe even Pakistan – perpetually crisis-embroiled but a surprise factor on so many ICC major event stages – will be better-equipped than the Proteas at the Asian jamboree, with unsettled Australia level-pegging with them at the very least.
As I write South Africa are a humiliating 2-1 down in a home series against a depleted India – yes, supposedly fishes out of water until a few enticing weeks’ time for them! – and in grave danger of losing it, as they did last summer’s main bilateral ODI series against England.
Shh, then, could this possibly mean the Proteas are strangely in a pretty good space a month out from CWC 2011?
In a casual post-match chat in the Newlands media centre on Tuesday, former SA batsman and increasingly sharp television commentator HD Ackerman only half-jokingly raised this very scenario with me.
His words were to the effect of: “If there’s going to be some results angst in the ranks, rather let it be now.”
Let’s face it, whatever the validity of that old “choker” tag, South African teams are invariably touted among the front-runners for World Cups -- but probably, conspicuously, not this time.
If I were Smith, Corrie van Zyl and the various supplementary team shrinks, I’d be banging that very drum: “We know we’re an imperfect article; let’s aim to have filled the cracks by the time we get to the World Cup. Let’s also use likely underdog status to our advantage.”
Already selection chief Hudson has pointedly, but not unjustifiably, conceded of the squad: “It has some way to go.”
The team is displaying a split personality – and then some – in the current series against the Indians: moments of heartening brilliance being followed by flashes of rank ineptitude, and vice versa.
When beanpole Morne Morkel humiliatingly let a ball through his grasp on the boundary for four at an advanced stage of the Newlands nail-biter, and not long afterwards took a quite blinding overhead catch, it somehow summed up where the team collectively has been at, of late.
Without all those rough edges, and some better aid from Lady Luck, the Proteas might conceivably even be 3-0 up against India and contemplating dead-rubber affairs at Port Elizabeth and Centurion. And we’d probably all be feeling rather more positive about the higher mountains ahead.
One-day cricket is a weird, cyclical beast. I’m thinking, for instance, England’s rollercoaster experience of the past three years or so.
In 2008, after losing the home Test series 2-1, their 50-overs side immediately atoned by thrashing the Proteas 4-0 in the NatWest Series. One-day cricket had long suffered through not commanding enough “priority” status in that country; things were looking up.
But only one season later, Australia provided a gruesome reality check by downing the despised “Poms” 6-1 in the NatWest Series of 2009.
Back to square one for England, then? No, not quite: they confirmed fresh seeds of limited-overs promise and commitment by claiming the ICC World Twenty20 title in the Caribbean in 2010, a little against many tipsters’ expectations.
Don’t get me wrong: deep down, I do fear some real strain for South Africa on the Subcontinent.
But this tournament, as much as anything, will be all about teams peaking and showing relish at the right time, from the quarter-finals onward.
Warts and all, the Proteas really ought to be among that bunch for the frantic last furlong, eh?
Rob is Sport24's chief writer
Disclaimer: Sport24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on Sport24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Sport24.
