Last Saturday, in between South Africa’s batting collapsing at the Wanderers on Friday and in Centurion on Sunday, marked exactly a year to go before the 2003 World Cup final at the Wanderers.
What are the chances, do you think, of South Africa being in that final?
Optimists, patriots and people who believe in fairies might think there’s a good chance; the rest of us, sadly, have cause to be less confident. When South Africa lost the Test series 1-5 to Australia, the official view was, well, we’re still the second-best team in the world.
Now we have the one-day series upon us and we’re off down the same road again. On Sunday in Centurion, South Africa lost to about as weak an Australian side as the tourists could muster. They should have been there for the taking, but the match followed an identical course to Friday’s game at the Wanderers. Nothing had been learned from Friday’s defeat, nothing had been changed.
This week coach Graham Ford went public for the second time in the past four weeks about his frustrations. There is no strategy in place, there has been no strategy for most of this season and there is no long-term strategy for the World Cup.
It is starting to be argued that he is not the right man to take South Africa to the World Cup. This may be so, but what is certain is that no one in his position, lacking support and denied real input into selection, would have a hope.
It is no secret that Ford and the convener of selectors Rushdi Magiet have no working relationship worth speaking about. Certain elements at the United Cricket Board (UCB) have put it about that winning isn’t the only thing, that other considerations, such as transformation, are more important. And when the country’s president endorses this view, coaches (whose performances are measured by results) are well-advised to consider alternative employment.
Ford isn’t the problem. The problem is that there is no vision of what type of cricket should be played by the national team, now or over the next 12 months. And if someone doesn’t come up with that sort of vision quickly, we haven’t a snowball’s chance at the Word Cup.
Peter Robinson is the editor of CricInfo South Africa