In 1996 South Africa had a squad as strong as any in the world. Bob Woolmer had instituted a series of revolutionary tactical innovations and preparation for the tournament had been first class. Apart from the last-minute loss of Dave Richardson with a broken finger, the 14-man unit was at full strength.
History suggests (and is rather too eagerly endorsed by those who were there) that the campaign was undone by an innings of rare quality in the quarterfinals by Brian Lara whose century was simply too good for the Proteas.
Actually, it was a very good hundred but it was 111, not 160. And the Proteas’ problems started with the ball, not the bat. They battled to contain their emotions while Lara was batting far more than they battled to contain the runs he was scoring.
And then there was 1999 and the infamous tied semifinal against Australia. Lance Klusener and Allan Donald’s run-out. The choke. No. The team, stronger even than the 1996 one, had been choking throughout the tournament. They never came close to doing themselves justice and were indebted to the superhuman efforts of Klusener, whose four man-of-the-match awards had carried them to the semifinal in the first place.
Humiliating result
In 2003, with yet another squad capable of beating anyone and everyone in bilateral series, the worst and most humiliating result possible became a reality: a first-round exit on home soil. And, yet again, there was an easy and readily available excuse. The Duckworth-Lewis system that provided the calculation resulted in Mark Boucher proudly blocking the final ball from Muttiah Muralitharan in the final group game against Sri Lanka, confident that victory was achieved, as the rain began to pour in Durban.
The calculation was, of course, for a “tie”, not victory. And in that single moment of mayhem, the host nation crawled away with its tail between its legs and, soon after, sacked both coach and captain in a maelstrom of the blame culture that so characterises South African sport. Nobody took responsibility — but everybody wanted someone to blame and looked for a culprit.
By the time many of those same players had reached the 2007 tournament, they were carrying scars like haematomas. You knew they were scarred by the vehemence with which they denied it. The mood was tense in the camp the night before the semifinal but nobody had the courage to acknowledge it, let alone address it. The team meeting had the air of a dentist’s waiting room. Coach Mickey Arthur knew something “wasn’t right” but decided that the risk of making a bad situation worse outweighed the potential positives of discussing the players’ fears and confronting their demons.
Before many thousands of South African spectators had even begun their battle with overzealous security officials more intent on keeping people out than letting them in, Graeme Smith’s team had collapsed to 27-5 inside the first 10 overs and the match was as good as over. Or as bad as over.
Subsequent performances at two ICC T20 tournaments and a Champions Trophy (also on home soil) were weak enough to convince Arthur that “— there was definitely a problem and it was mental”.
Areas of concern
So what’s different this time? Well, it’s difficult to understand exactly how it’s happened given that there are three Protea batsmen and three bowlers ranked in the world’s top 10, but the team really, genuinely is not ranked among the favourites. It’s almost as if the rest of the world has also given up waiting for South Africa to win one of these tournaments, not just their own fans.
This squad is very good, make no mistake about that. But there are two major areas of concern that could prove fatal. The first is the lack of experience and dynamism at number six and seven in the batting order; the second is the lack of specialist “death” bowlers. Dale Steyn bristles at the suggestion that he and his bowling colleagues won’t cope with the closing overs. And very typically he points to the team’s many positives rather than to perceived weaknesses.
“I wouldn’t swap Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla with any other opening partnership in the world — even India’s. I wouldn’t want anybody other than Jacques Kallis at number three while JP Duminy and AB de Villiers have both averaged over 50 in the middle order for the last three years. Our top five batsmen are all ranked in the world’s top 20,” he said this week.
“I don’t care if the pundits don’t rate our chances, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t regard us as favourites! Some people may have low expectations of us but we do not have low expectations of ourselves, far from it. I expect us to win. There’s no point turning up otherwise.”
South Africa play warm-up matches against Zimbabwe and Australia before their first official match against the West Indies on February 24.