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Dhaka - Andrew Hudson was always the ultimate master of his emotions as a cricketer and the same philosophical acceptance of life’s vagaries and whimsies characterises his tenure as national selection convenor.
“I was up early this morning to make sure the sun came up,” smiled Hudson at Dhaka International Airport on Saturday morning. “I’m quite sure some of the players last night were wondering whether it would.”
Hudson, wisely, was refusing to rush into any premature assessments of judgements of the Proteas’ miserable capitulation against New Zealand in the quarter-final at the Shere Bangla Stadium but he has already shown that he is unafraid to make hard decisions and never shies away from the truth.
“It’s always sensible to be calm for a few days when emotions are running high and let the dust settle. I didn’t realise until afterwards that South Africa had never won a single World Cup knockout match, in any tournament, but it’s not a very proud record, is it? It’s something that we addressed before this World Cup and we’ll address it again.”
Apart from the scarring effect the latest disaster will have on those players in the current squad, Hudson admits that it will have yet more effect on the players who are selected in four years time. The World Cup ‘bogey’ is now threatening to be uncontrollable.
“Each generation has more and more expectation thrust on it and it becomes harder and harder every four years,” Hudson said. “But we’ll stick at it. We have to win eventually, don’t we?”
