Rob Walter – Page 2 – Bulletproof Truth

Another generation denied, another inspired

“There’s about a 1% chance I’ll be watching. I don’t care.” – Rob Walter on who might win the World Cup final.

Telford Vice / Eden Gardens

NINE of the 15 players in South Africa’s men’s World Cup squad are likely to end their international careers as they started them: without a trophy to show for all their talent, skill, experience and hard work.

Rassie van der Dussen is the oldest man in the squad at 34, and David Miller and Reeza Hendricks are mere months younger. Temba Bavuma, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi are 33. Heinrich Klaasen is 32, and Quinton de Kock and Lizaad Williams 30. None of those players are a good bet to be in contention for the squad when South Africa host the tournament in 2027.

De Kock has already hung up his gloves, bat and pads. He announced before the tournament that he would retire from ODIs immediately South Africa’s run at the World Cup was done. That happened on Thursday, when Australia won the semifinal between the teams by three wickets with 16 balls to spare.

This generation of South Africans are not unusual in that no senior team from their country have won a World Cup. But they set themselves apart from others on Thursday by losing to a team who played better than they did. They didn’t implode inexplicably, as several other South Africa sides have done in similar situations.

The squad includes Gerald Coetzee and Marco Jansen, who are 23 and played in their first World Cup. Aiden Markram is 29, Kagiso Rabada 28, and Lungi Ngidi and Andile Phehlukwayo 27.

How would Rob Walter, the father figure in the dressingroom even though he is on the younger side for a coach at 48, ensure the positive aspects of his team’s performance at the tournament were successfully transferred from the senior to the more junior members of the squad in what was — as he gave a press conference — an abjectly disappointed dressingroom?

“Thank goodness I don’t have to be ‘Quinny’s father figure anymore; that’s a bonus,” Walter joked. “If you think about what we’ve created and experienced here together, World Cups are where you spend a lot of time together. They’re different to bilateral series, and I think if you ask everyone about their experiences I would hope that they say that this was memorable.

“The more memorable those moments are, the tighter we are as a unit, the more excited guys get about their cricket. We’ve seen guys play unbelievable cricket and probably surprise a lot of people in this room and around the world. That is what fuels them to come back and be better.

“I’m excited. I think there’s huge scope for us to grow as a team and to play even better than we have. And the majority of the people who are going to be on the journey are still in that changing room.”

Rabada, for instance, who despite being among the younger members of the squad has played 60 Tests, 101 ODIs and 56 T20Is, and is central to the attack. His importance to the cause was made clear by his partial omission on Thursday — he was unable to bowl his last four overs because of a bruised heel, which eased the pressure on Australia’s batters.

“That’s why we didn’t see as much of him in the contest as we would have expected,” Walter said. “In his comeback spell that he bowled, he just wasn’t able to deliver at 100%. A fit and able ‘KG’ has shown throughout this competition that he is one of our leading bowlers and has been for some time. So it was a pity. But I don’t think it was a defining moment in the game.”

South Africa reached the semis by winning seven of their nine league matches, confounding critics who didn’t think they were among the favourites. Their batters scored nine centuries, more than any other side in the competition. Coetzee’s 20 wickets is the most by any South Africa bowler at a World Cup, and Keshav Maharaj rose to the top of the ODI bowling rankings during the tournament.

“It’s gutting to lose a semifinal, but I’m incredibly proud of the fight shown by the lads. The first 12 overs of batting this afternoon was a serious challenge. And ultimately, I think that’s what separated the teams.”

South Africa had won all five games in which they had batted first, which they did again on Thursday after Bavuma won the toss — only to run into Australia’s crack new-ball pair, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, in seaming conditions. They slipped to 18/2 in the powerplay, their lowest score in the first 10 overs of an ODI since 2008, and recovered to a total of 212 with Miller scoring 101 off 116. The Aussies were reduced to 137/5 and 193/7, but that wasn’t enough to clinch the match. Even so, it wasn’t a choke.

“For me a choke is losing a game that you’re in a position to win,” Walter said. “In this instance we were behind the eight-ball right from the word go and we actually fought our way back and put up a score that gave us a chance. And then they got off to a flyer and we fought and put ourselves back into the game. There’s nothing even remotely close to a choke that happened out there today. It was a serious contest between two good teams; number two and three in the tournament.”

Walter defended selecting Bavuma even though South Africa’s captain wasn’t fully fit because of a hamstring strain: “If you looked at him in the field, and if you didn’t know that he wasn’t 100%, you wouldn’t have guessed. I think he was pretty close to 100%, to be fair.

“From a batting point of view we were confident he would be able to go bat properly, run between the wickets properly, and if anything might not have had the intensity in the field in terms of chasing balls down that he would normally have.

“He was weighing that up with being him on the field and present as the captain. For me that trumps it every day; having his leadership and his presence on the field is everything. We spoke about it. He said, ‘I’m not 100% but I can definitely play and I want to be on the park.’ And that’s the end of the discussion. I back him 100%.”

Who did Walter think would win Sunday’s final between India and Australia in Ahmedabad?

“To be honest, there’s about a 1% chance I’ll be watching. And to be even more brutally honest, I actually don’t care.

“It’s always great for the home nation to win the World Cup. But I’ve got a lot of friends in the Australian changeroom, so I have a soft spot for a couple of them, especially the coach [Andrew McDonald], to do well.

“But just seeing when we played against India [at Eden Gardens] and the support that’s rallied around the team, and the great hope and inspiration that winning a World Cup at home brings, it would only be fitting for India to win. In the same breath, they have been the best side in the competition and they’ve played the best cricket …

“… but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what will happen.”

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What the Bavuma haters don’t want you to know

“Temba hasn’t come into the conversation about being dropped because he has been one of our best batters for the entire year.” – Rob Walter

Telford Vice / Kolkata

ELVIS Presley killed JFK, and now runs a hotel with Jim Morrison in Morocco, from where the Illuminati, the Freemasons and Bill Gates rule the world with the help of a powerful global cabal, who cooked up Covid-19 to seize control of everything forever. And Temba Bavuma is undroppable because he is black.

All of the above conspiracy theories, and others, are available in a social media cesspool near you. The last of them, fuelled by racism, has been particularly in vogue during the men’s World Cup in India. So, Rob Walter was asked on Tuesday, was Bavuma subject to the pressure all players are under to keep their places?

“Absolutely he is,” Walter said. “Temba hasn’t come into the conversation about being dropped because he has been one of our best batters for the entire year. From my point of view, he hasn’t scored the runs he would have wanted to in the World Cup. But in every training he looks like he’s close, and in every game he looks like he’s close. A good score from him is just round the corner. As far as being undroppable, no-one’s bigger than the team. The same goes for Temba.”

Bavuma was South Africa’s highest runscorer in ODIs in 2023 leading into the World Cup — 637 at an average of 79.62, also the highest, and a strike rate of 104.08, seventh on that list. At the tournament he has made 145 runs — fewer than six of his teammates — in seven innings. Eight of South Africa’s players average higher than his 20.71, and 11 have a better strike rate than his 75.12.

What the haters won’t want highlighted is that those numbers put Bavuma, who is in line to lead his team in the final in Ahmedabad on Sunday if South Africa get past Australia in their semifinal at Eden Gardens on Thursday, in excellent company.

Eoin Morgan was fifth among England’s runscorers and sixth in the averages and the strike rates in 2019. In 2015 Michael Clarke was fifth, seventh and fifth by the same measures. MS Dhoni came in at sixth, fourth and ninth in 2011. Ricky Ponting led Australia to two World Cup triumphs, but he had a better tournament than all of his Aussie peers just once and in one sense only: in 2003 when he topped the runscoring charts with 415 in 10 innings. Yet calls for their heads during those tournaments weren’t heard — maybe because, like Bavuma, they were worth their weight in leadership.

How many times in all the dozen World Cups yet played has the captain of the winning team led his side in all three of those metrics? Once, in 1983, when none of India’s other players could match the 303 runs Kapil Dev scored at 60.60 and a strike rate of 108.99.

The only other leading performances by the captains of World Cup champion teams in any of the three categories are Clive Lloyd’s strike rate of 104.63 and 81.45 in 1975 and 1979, Arjuna Ranatunga’s average of 120.50 in 1996, Steve Waugh’s run aggregate of 398 in 1999, and Ricky Ponting’s run aggregate of 415 in 2003. The leaders of the winning teams have come out ahead in just 13.89% of the key batting departments.

Besides currently, the anti-Bavuma brigade were at their noisiest after the T20 World Cup in Australia in November, when he captained the side who crashed out of the running for the knockouts in an ignominious loss to the Netherlands. Bavuma scored 70 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 112.90 in that tournament, and Cricbuzz has learnt that he survived the selectorial axe on a three-person panel by one vote. Being the captain and black thus did not protect him from coming under the scrutiny applied to other players.

The decision to retain Bavuma at the T20 World Cup was unfair on Reeza Hendricks, who rode the bench throughout despite going to the tournament having scored from 53 to 74 in four of his previous five innings in the format. Bavuma resigned the leadership in February and has played in just three of South Africa’s half-dozen T20Is this year, and then probably only because Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller were rested for a series against Australia in August.

The clamour for Hendricks to replace Bavuma is rising again. And especially in light of Hendricks made 85 off 75 when he stepped in at short notice after Bavuma withdrew, because of a stomach problem, from the game against England at the Wankhede on October 21.

But the strong case Hendricks had for playing at the T20 World Cup is not neatly transferred to this tournament. He appeared in only three ODIs this year before coming to India, scoring 52, 29 and 28 for an average of 39.66 and a strike rate of 85.00. Three days after his enterprising innings against England he was cleanbowled for 12 by Shoriful Islam, also in Mumbai. So the argument for Hendricks being preferred to Bavuma is significantly less compelling than it was last year.

Typical of the sad logic of Bavuma’s more irrational detractors is their widely expressed hope that he will not play in Thursday’s semifinal because of the hamstring strain he suffered while fielding against Afghanistan in Ahmedabad on Friday. But their wish would have been rocked by Bavuma coming through a training session at Eden Gardens on Monday in one piece.

“Yesterday was a step in the process of declaring him fit,” Walter, himself a fitness expert in a previous life in cricket, said. “We didn’t do any high-speed running, we didn’t do any fielding, we didn’t do any running between wickets. You would still have to factor those into the preparation, and check him out in the more high-speed zones.

“That’s how the progression happens. You go from when the injury happens to the rehab that has happened over the last 72 hours. Each day brings something new to test whether he is ready and match fit. We ticked a box yesterday. Today there will be a few more boxes to be ticked.”

Bavuma seemed to get one of them out of the way when, shortly after the South Africans arrived for their training session at Eden Gardens on Tuesday evening, he walked towards the netting that had been erected around the pitch table to keep it safe from practising players.

The light fence met Bavuma at chest height, but he was able to step over it easily enough and continue his journey to the middle to have a look at the surface being prepared for Thursday’s game. He strode with purpose, looking like someone who had a point to prove, a match to play, a World Cup semifinal to help win.

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South Africa look to ‘recover’ from India mauling

“It wouldn’t surprise me if the tables were turned the next time around. The beauty of it is that there may well be another shot for us.” – Rob Walter on the prospect of facing India again.

Telford Vice / Eden Gardens

ROB Walter brings many attributes to his position as South Africa’s head coach. An oversized ego is not among them, which helps when you’re lumped with explaining a record defeat. There was no better candidate to do so in the wake of India’s thundering 243-run win in a men’s World Cup match at Eden Gardens on Sunday.

The game was a top-of-table clash between teams who had lost only one of their combined 14 matches in the tournament. But there was just one side in it throughout as India piled up 326/5 with Virat Kohli scoring 101 not out to equal Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI world record of 49 centuries. Then Ravindra Jadeja took 5/33 as South Africa crashed to 83 all out in 27.1 overs to seal their heaviest ever loss in the format. India made more runs in their powerplay — 91 — than the South Africans in their entire innings. How had things gone so badly wrong?

“Good question and an understatement altogether,” Walter said. “It was just a day where we were out-skilled. They got off to a flyer and we pulled it back nicely. [India’s total] was too much on that deck, and then from a bowling point of view they put us under pressure from the word go. We couldn’t claw our way back in.”

South Africa’s XI bristled with Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen, who scored eight centuries between them in their team’s first seven games. On Sunday none of them made more than Klaasen’s 13. They scored 28 runs combined.

Marco Jansen arrived at Eden Gardens as the World Cup’s most dangerous new-ball bowler, having taken 18 wickets in the powerplay. After his first four overs on Sunday he had been hit for 43 runs. He finished with a career-worst 1/94 at an economy rate of 9.72.

Walter didn’t think that chastening experience would damage Jansen’s confidence: “It’s a gift, isn’t it, being able to run out in front of thousands in a game like today and with so many learning opportunities out there? He struggled today but he’s got the skill-set to bounce back and be effective the next time around. What he has now is the value of having competed and felt what it’s like to be in a cauldron with so many people cheering against you. That experience is invaluable. You can’t get that anywhere else but here.”

As both teams had qualified for the semifinals before Sunday, not much was riding on the match. But South Africa could meet the Indians again in the knockouts. How did that make Walter feel?

“You have to believe that on the day, if you execute your skills, you’ve also got a chance. We didn’t get that right from the word go today.

“But you get taught new lessons every day and get surprised every day. So it wouldn’t surprise me if the tables were turned the next time around. The beauty of it is that there may well be another shot for us.”

At least, South Africa’s supporters will say to each other, their team didn’t beat themselves. Instead, they fell victim to vastly better opponents. Walter concurred: “The scoreboard will tell you everything you need to know. India were far superior, there are no two ways about that.

“Just like we’ve been far superior to other teams that, on paper, we have looked evenly matched with or are potentially superior to us.

“Once you get your nose in front in international cricket, I believe anyone can beat anyone. And today the Indian side got their nose in front. We weren’t able to get back into the game.”

That didn’t mean the South Africans would wear their defeat lightly: “If you walk into that changing room now you’re going to find a group of guys highly disappointed that we weren’t able to pay tribute to what was an awesome occasion and a great opportunity to showcase our skills. We’ve played so well throughout this World Cup and we would have wanted nothing more than for this to be a great contest.”

Walter’s team will have to regroup in time for a potentially challenging last league match against Afghanistan in Ahmedabad on Friday. “As far as the next four days go, for us it’s about doing what we’ve done the whole time, using the time available to us to get ready for the next fixture, and then it’s into a semi-final. Nothing changes.

“The guys have worked incredibly hard on their game and we have invested a huge amount of time into our preparation. Now it’s about recovering mentally and physically and being ready to compete like we have the whole tournament.”

But not, he didn’t have to say, like they failed to do on Sunday.

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In the Eden Gardens of hopes and dreams

“We are trying to not even think about who we are playing. It’s all about us.” – Rahul Dravid makes no bones about India’s self-centredness.

Telford Vice / Eden Gardens

THE South Africans wouldn’t have seen the dozens of India replica shirt sellers on the paths leading to Eden Gardens on Saturday, a pile of azure and saffron hopes and dreams in front of each of them. They wouldn’t have taken note of the scrums of hopefuls at the ticket counters, nor felt the urgency and intensity that shimmered from them.

They would have had no clue about the scores of workers ranged around this grand but strangely bleak ground, waiting in the shade to do whatever it is they had been employed to do. But, after their training session, they would have heard the rising wave of cheers that greeted their bus as it pulled away and melted into the fast falling evening. And they would have known: they are not in Kansas anymore. Or anywhere India aren’t.

The men’s World Cup, for India and South Africa, starts on Sunday. These sides have spent the tournament like the big beasts they are, circling each other and putting other, lesser sides in their place. They are at the top of the standings, and on Sunday — not before time — they will be on the same ground not giving each other anywhere to run or hide.

It was probably a good thing the South Africans were long gone by the time the Indians arrived for their practice under lights. So they didn’t hear or feel the roar that greeted the sight of the home team’s bus, which was exponentially more powerful than that with which the visitors had been sent on their way.

Also advantageous, no doubt, was that they had no knowledge of the police, some on horseback, others armed with lathis, using what looked like unnecessary violence to disperse a throng that had formed several metres away from the bus to try and catch a glimpse of the men who not only wear the authentic version of those azure and saffron shirts, but also embody so many of the nation’s hopes and dreams. And also, perhaps, to wish Virat Kohli a happy 35th birthday for Sunday.

South Africa’s session ambled through its few hours in front of empty banks of seats. Shaun Pollock was in attendance and had apparently casual chats with a range of his compatriots. Rob Walter took a photograph of the pitch being prepared for Sunday’s game, presumably to make a comparison with the finished article on Sunday.

Before he trained Temba Bavuma gave a press conference, which was well-attended but not packed. Crassly and inexplicably he was asked about choking. The captain of a team who have won six of their seven matches at the tournament, a side who had hung tough to win, by one wicket, the only game in which they had been put under pressure, took it well and answered, not for the first time, with good grace: “To choke? I don’t know how to answer that. I think if we come unstuck tomorrow, I don’t think it’ll be a matter of choking. I doubt you would say about India, if they come unstuck, that they had choked.”

Rahul Dravid appeared in the same room and sat down in the same chair some hours later. This time it was standing room only, and the ICC media manager had to thicken his voice to clear the aisle of a renegade camera person. Dravid was addressed as Sir and Bhai. The crowd nodded their agreement at everything he said and laughed at his dad jokes as if they were in the presence not of cricketing greatness, but someone they would pay good money to see and hear.

On the field outside India’s session was stirring towards starting. In the stands more than a hundred were watching. Up to four large national flags were being waved, and Sudhir Gautam, once Sachin Tendulkar’s No. 1, now the entire team’s, was in attendance; all got up in body paint and blowing his conch.

The shell’s wail rose into the murky darkness like that of a fog horn. It was the sound of hopes and dreams.

When: November 5, 2023 at 14:00 IST

Where: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

What to expect: Heat — 32 degrees — humidity — 65%, and, the form book says, small totals. In the only two games played here in the tournament so far, the first innings totals were 229 and 204. But the teams who scored them were the Netherlands and Bangladesh. Sunday’s reality couldn’t be more different.

Teams:

India

On a surface where South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma thought they could do with an extra spinner, India could also be tempted to use the R Ashwin option. However, if recent tendency is anything to go by they will stick to the combination that has served them well in the last couple of games, even if it means fielding the same five bowlers for another consecutive game.

Tactics & strategy

Where do you start with a team who seem impregnable in all departments? When India reeled off five wins batting second, it seemed they were a bigger threat when they chased. But that was because they hadn’t batted first in the tournament. When they did they won by 100 and 302 runs.

Probable XI: Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma (capt), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj

South Africa

Will South Africa deploy Tabraiz Shamsi as well as Keshav Maharaj, or was Bavuma indulging in some mind games when he told his press conference on Saturday that “if the wicket assists the spinners you’ll definitely see those two”? He then said he had yet to see the pitch. One reading of the statistical tea leaves would support a second spinner’s inclusion, another not.

Tactics & strategy

Conversely to India, the South Africans have looked stronger when they have set targets. They have won five times batting first and lost once batting second. They have won a game chasing — by a solitary wicket when the target was a manageable 271.

Probable XI: Temba Bavuma (capt), Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi

Did you know?

— Virat Kohli has scored two of his 48 ODI centuries in the month of November, but he has never batted for India in the format on his birthday.

— Tabraiz Shamsi’s bowling average in six ODIs against India is 63.60, but 26.71 in three games in India.

— Pace has claimed 21 wickets at 19.33 and an economy rate of 4.30 at Eden Gardens during the tournament, and spin 10 wickets at 36.30 and 4.81.

What they said:

“We are trying to not even think about who we are playing. It’s all about us. It’s about our preparation, our planning, and whether we can execute our skills.” — Rahul Dravid keeps the focus on India.

“Playing at Eden Gardens is an occasion, but it does become another game of cricket.” – Temba Bavuma plays down the massive moment.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav

South Africa: Temba Bavuma (capt), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Rassie van der Dussen, Marco Jansen, Andile Phehlukwayo, Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lizaad Williams

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Time, at last, for cricket’s World Cup to shine

“The result against Pakistan could have been different, and then we’d be having a different conversation. If we do it again and again we’ll start to accept that we’re getting better at winning key moments in pressure games.” — Rob Walter

Telford Vice / Pune

RUGBY is a bigger deal than cricket in New Zealand and South Africa. Small wonder: the All Blacks or the Springboks have won seven of the 10 men’s World Cups yet played, even though the Boks weren’t at the first two because of apartheid.

So there will be no avoiding in Pune on Wednesday the echoes of this year’s final between rugby’s giants, which was played in Paris in the early hours of Sunday morning (IST). The South Africans claimed a record fourth triumph, winning a thunderous, controversy-strewn classic by a single point.

Men’s World Cup matches involving the countries’ cricket teams have have been spiced with drama — the 2011 quarterfinal and 2015 semifinal, for instance — but this rivalry isn’t as keen as it is in rugby. Maybe that’s because New Zealand have beaten South Africa six times in eight meetings. It isn’t much of a rivalry if one side wins significantly more often.

But the South Africans will believe they are capable of pulling one back this time. They are among the biggest batting teams at the tournament, and in Chennai on Friday they offered evidence that they have found a way to play under pressure by hanging tough to beat Pakistan by one wicket in the first close match of this World Cup.

The complication, for South Africa, is that the New Zealanders are themselves not averse to piling on the runs. And, of course, Friday’s match was not a knockout game — which have tended to prompt meltdowns in the team now led by Temba Bavuma.

The complication, for New Zealand, is that Lockie Ferguson, Kane Williamson and Mark Chapman are carrying significant injuries. Those are problems in three important areas that have made them a competitive team.

The other complication is that, with the semifinal line-up solidifying with each passing match, this game is more about who goes where in the final four than anything else. Both teams will be reasonably confident of making the play-offs, but will they play Australia or India in the semis? Winning, and losing, on Wednesday will go some way towards answering that question.

New Zealand’s other remaining opponents in the league stage are Pakistan and Sri Lanka. They should have the measure of both. But South Africa will be at Eden Gardens on Sunday for a clash with unbeaten India. They won’t want to be thinking about what went wrong in Pune as they take the flight to Kolkata.

Cricket matches between New Zealand and South Africa are often distilled to a tussle that pits the former’s famous flintiness against the latter’s supposedly superior strength. That narrative will again be afoot in this match, but so will something else.

When you grow up in the shadow of rugby and play cricket instead, and you know you have picked the sport that doesn’t grab your compatriots’ attention nearly as much as the other, you also know you need to take every chance to show them why you have made the right choice. This, for all involved, is one such chance.

When: November 1, 2023 at 14:00 IST

Where: Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune

What to expect: A small target — 260 wasn’t reached in either of the first innings in the two matches played here in the tournament — despite the decent pitch and small outfield. Hot and dry, but less humid than other venues.

Teams:

New Zealand

The Kiwis are awaiting news on Lockie Ferguson’s Achilles, Kane Williamson’s thumb and Mark Chapman’s calf. Tom Latham was particularly non-committal about them at his press conference on Tuesday.

Without certainty on those players it’s difficult to see which way New Zealand will lean to pick their XI. That said, all three trained on Tuesday.

Tactics & strategy

New Zealand have made four of the top 20 totals in the tournament, and Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell and Devon Conway have scored centuries. So we can bank on them being competitive with the bat. Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry are their two most successful bowlers and are among the top 10 wicket-takers, and then there’s Glenn Phillips, whose off-spin became less part-time and more frontline every time he gives it a whirl.

Probable XI: Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (capt), Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson

South Africa

Kagiso Rabada missed the match against Pakistan in Chennai on Friday because of lower back spasms, but should be good to go on Wednesday. South Africa’s only other question is whether to pick Tabraiz Shamsi as a second spinner rather than Gerald Coetzee, their fast bowling enforcer.

Tactics & strategy

Like their opponents, South Africa own four of the 20 biggest totals at this World Cup. Quinton de Kock has scored half of their six hundreds, and Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and Rassie van der Dussen the others. Runs are not the issue, and they showed against Pakistan that they can chase. Also like the Kiwis, the Saffers have two of the leading 10 wicket-takers in Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee. But they have been liable to leak a few too many runs.

Probable XI: Temba Bavuma (capt), Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Gerald Coetzee, Lungi Ngidi

Did you know?

— Two of the three centuries in World Cup games between the teams — Herschelle Gibbs’ 143 and Stephen Fleming’s 134 not out — were scored in the same match, at the Wanderers in 2003.

— Jacob Oram’s 4/39 in the 2011 quarterfinal in Dhaka is the only instance of a bowler claiming more than three wickets in World Cup matches involving these teams.

— Two of the Kiwis’ six World Cup wins were in knockout games: the 2011 quarterfinal and the 2015 semifinal.

What they said:

“There were two special sporting events going on, and one’s just finished. But we feel the support we have back home. We certainly understand the country is right behind us and hopefully we can make them proud.” — Tom Latham says his team can feel the love despite the nation’s obsession with the rugby World Cup.

“The result [against Pakistan] could have been different, and then we’d be having a different conversation. But the important and heartening thing was to see how some of the guys played under pressure, and that we managed to find a way to get over the line. If we do it again and again we’ll start to accept that we’re getting better at winning key moments in pressure games.” — Rob Walter on South Africa’s relationship with tight contests.

Squads:

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt),Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Will Young

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How the Dutch did the double over dazzled South Africa

“The learnings are there. It’s about us being open enough to be able to take them on board and move forward.” – Rob Walter

Telford Vice / Dharamsala

HOW could a team who played so well to beat Sri Lanka and Australia perform so poorly against the Netherlands? Rob Walter seemed to appreciate the enquiry, even if the faltering team under discussion was his own.

“That’s a hell of a good question; I guess that’s why we love sport,” Walter said after South Africa crashed to a difficult to imagine defeat, by 38 runs, against the Dutch in their men’s World Cup match in Dharamsala on Tuesday.

“Four days ago we played outstandingly well [to beat Australia by 134 runs, their heaviest ever World Cup defeat, in Lucknow], today not well. We weren’t good enough, particularly at the end of their innings and at the start of our innings.”

The game turned on the last nine overs of the Netherlands’ innings, when they scored 104 runs, and the first 11.2 of South Africa’s reply, when they shambled to 44/4. Call it 122 balls of unscripted mayhem. Or call it what Walter did: a cautionary tale that there are no minnows at the World Cup. “If you’re not switched on at key moments you’re going to find yourself on the wrong side of the result,” he said.

And how. South Africa reduced the Dutch to 82/5, then 112/6, then 140/7. Then they let them off the hook, but the 245/8 the Netherlands made — 32 of them extras, among those 21 wides — in their 43 overs in the rain-affected match should have been within reach of the South Africans’ powerful batting line-up. Instead the big guns jammed and Walter’s team were dismissed for 207 in 42.5.

“Strategically we might have got a few things wrong,” he said. “Maybe I got our ratios wrong in terms of the slower ball versus hard length and on-pace deliveries. That’s definitely more extras than we would want to bowl. At 140/7 you’re in control of the game, so to not be able to close out the innings at the death is disappointing. The momentum shifted then, but we back ourselves to chase 240. But we got off to a very poor start and that put us on the back foot.

“It takes everyone to win the game and the competition, so you can’t rely on any one aspect. You’ve got to do it all and you’ve got to do it consistently well. We were inconsistent from the last game to this game, and we got a couple of things wrong that we normally would get right. It takes batting, bowling and fielding to win games.”

Walter was not yet South Africa’s white-ball coach when the Dutch beat them by 13 runs in Adelaide in November in their last group match at the T20 World Cup, which eliminated Temba Bavuma’s team from the race for the semifinals. Tuesday’s setback came in the South Africans’ third league game of this tournament, so they have six matches left to repair the damage.

But they are under pressure to fix things quickly, what with them taking on England and Bangladesh in Mumbai on Saturday and next Tuesday and Pakistan in Chennai next Friday. That’s seven days that could shake South Africa’s world — in good or bad ways — nevermind their World Cup.

“We’ll do a proper dissection of the game, but it’s really what you take from this game that makes you better in the next game,” Walter said. “That’s ultimately the question we ask ourselves after every game. Win or lose, what are the lessons that we take and how do we use those to be better next time round? And, to be honest, we could probably chat for quite long this time. There’s a lot to learn, good and bad. I don’t need to point out the obvious; the numbers tell us that. The learnings are there. It’s about us being open enough to be able to take them on board and move forward.”

Scott Edwards was one of eight players who were in the Dutch XI that shining day in Adelaide in November and again in Dharamsala on Tuesday. He was anything but surprised at his team’s latest feat: “It’s just about playing our best brand of cricket, and we feel like if we play well enough on the day we can beat any side.”

Even so they had to earn the right to be in India by reaching the final of the qualifiers in Zimbabwe in July. Tuesday’s knockout blow must have made it all worthwhile. “After qualifying we were pretty quick to set our minds to what we wanted to do at this tournament,” Edwards said. “We weren’t coming here just to have fun and enjoy it. We’re here to win games of cricket and give ourselves the best chance to make that next [semifinal] stage. If we want to be amongst it we’ve got to beat sides like this.”

The Netherlands lost to Pakistan and New Zealand before Tuesday’s triumph. But those unhappinesses are receding at breakneck speed in the Dutch’s review mirror: what matters is now. They next play fellow qualifiers Sri Lanka in Lucknow on Saturday. The Lankans, who have already gone down to South Africa, Pakistan and Australia, have — you would hope — been warned.

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Backing Boks big deal for Bavuma’s boys

“We want to leave that where it was and put all our energy into preparing properly for the fixture and then being switched on when the fixture arrives.” – Rob Walter on South Africa’s men’s World Cup record.

Telford Vice / Dharamsala

SHOULD you put your ear to the doors of South Africa’s men’s players in their Dharamsala hotel rooms in the early hours of Monday morning you might hear something interesting. Yawps of ecstasy, for instance, wails of anxious excitement, or sighs of relief or resignation. To be clear, this will involve no body parts besides the eyes.

The Springboks, South Africa’s rugby union team, kick off their World Cup quarterfinal against France in Paris at 12.30am (IST) on Monday. Members of Temba Bavuma’s squad are likely to watch the match. They will do so primarily as supporters but also in the knowledge that, as long as the Boks keep winning, they will be able to sail under the radar at their own World Cup in India.

Similarly to Indians turning their full attention to Rohit Sharma’s team at the World Cup only once India were done winning a record 107 medals at the Asian Games, South Africans won’t put Bavuma’s team under proper scrutiny until the Springboks’ campaign has been completed. That could happen before breakfast time on Monday, or in one of the coming weekend’s semifinals, or indeed in the final on October 29.

The Boks have been to three World Cup finals and won them all. That, and the rise of black and brown matchwinners who have transformed rugby from its roots in the country as a game of, for and by apartheid’s white oppressors into a national treasure, has made the Springboks darlings of their society beyond sport.

Their cricket counterparts can only wonder what that feels like. They have never reached a final despite going into several World Cups among the stronger teams. Worse, they have crashed out of tournaments in ways the Boks never experience: they lose to teams who play better but they do not beat themselves.

Bavuma’s squad have lugged that history with them to India. But they haven’t collected it from the baggage carousel. Instead they have left it to go round and round on a one-track journey to futility and irrelevance.

“We’ve had a brief conversation to say the past is the past,” Rob Walter said in Dharmsala on Saturday. “The only thing we can do is learn from it, and focus on what’s in front of us. If we do carry that burden it just uses up energy. We want to leave that where it was and put all our energy into preparing properly for the fixture and then being switched on when the fixture arrives.”

Walter spoke three days before his unbeaten side will try to add the Netherlands to Sri Lanka and Australia, teams they have taken points off so far in the tournament. Mention of the Dutch will ring alarms for South Africans, whose team suffered one of their infamous meltdowns against them in Adelaide in November on their way out of the T20 World Cup. This squad includes eight members of that XI. Would the Adelaide awfulness, which the Netherlands won by 13 runs, be on their minds on Tuesday? “No, not particularly,” Walter said. “It’s an opportunity to play the game the way we want to.”

Like South Africa did in Lucknow on Thursday, when they piled up 311/7 and sealed the Aussies’ heaviest World Cup loss by dismissing them for 177. That followed the World Cup record total of 428/5 South Africa made in Delhi last Saturday, when they bowled out the Lankans for 326.

Their handsome victory notwithstanding, Bavuma’s team conceded too many runs and fielded sloppily in their first game. They addressed both issues in the second match in impressively efficient fashion. The South Africans arrived in India with one of the better batting line-ups, but their bowling is considered a potential stumbling block — not least because Anrich Nortjé has been ruled out of the tournament with a lumbar stress fracture. Thursday’s display challenged that view.

“It was a bowling win,” Walter said. “I know the batters did a great job to get us where we got to, but from a bowling perspective it was a clinical performance. And it really was started by Lungi [Ngidi]. That five-over spell in the powerplay was exemplary.”

Ngidi, always an intelligent bowler, looks leaner, fitter and stronger than ever. He induced David Warner to slap a catch to cover in his new-ball spell of five overs, which cost just five runs. At the Kotla, he started with a scoreless over before his next two sailed for 27 runs — all but one of them hit in fours and sixes by the rampaging Kusal Mendis. What was the difference between the two matches?

“Delhi is a bowlers’ graveyard; the ball flies,” Ngidi said after Thursday’s game, a reference to the Kotla’s belter of a pitch and its small, lightning fast outfield. “We knew it was going to be that way. Whatever criticism comes with that, we take it on the chin. The runs were always going to be high but we have an attack that takes wickets. We were a little bit rusty but it’s starting to show that the consistency is going to come the more we play.”

That level of realism will serve South Africa well. It also sets them apart from their predecessors, who have tended to come to the World Cup looking to kick down the door — not unlike the Springboks. Thing is, cricket is not rugby. That was stirringly proved in Marseille on Saturday by the Argentina players on the bench singing along with their team’s supporters in the crowd while they were behind late in their rugby World Cup quarterfinal against Wales, which Argentina won 29-17. Also, the Boks are good at kicking down the door.

At least the cricketers are not as disappointing as South Africa’s perennially poor men’s football side. Bafana Bafana have managed to successfully navigate the World Cup qualifying process — which is far more complex and difficult than in any other team sport — only twice in seven editions of the tournament, not considering the free pass they were given as hosts in 2010.

Bafana have won just two of their nine group matches and have never progressed beyond the first stage of a World Cup. Despite that, and unlike the Boks, who know exactly who and what they are, they suffer from a damaging hubris: they think they are significantly better than their performances and results indicate.

The cricketers don’t have that problem. They also don’t have the Boks’ success. They won’t be kicking down doors in the early hours of Monday morning. Instead they’ll be behind them, yawping, wailing and sighing, like their own fans. And hoping, for more than one reason, that the Springboks keep winning.

* The Springboks beat France 29-28 to secure a semifinal against England in Paris on Saturday.

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South Africa beat Australia, but not the Boks

“There’s more in the tank with him. He’s not even close to his ceiling.” – Rob Walter on Marco Jansen.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

SOME of the loudest cheers in the deciding men’s ODI at the Wanderers on Sunday came between overs during Australia’s innings. Cricket had nothing to do with the rousing noise, which served to remind South Africa’s players of their place in the country’s pecking order.

The start of the Aussies’ reply to South Africa’s 315/9 coincided with kick-off in the Springboks’ men’s rugby World Cup match against Romania in Bordeaux. The Wanderers’ management knew better than to ignore that reality, and put the rugby on the big screen between overs.

Romania are ranked 19th in the world, the Boks second. Those 17 degrees of separation loomed large as the South Africans began racking up the points — to the delight of the Wanderers crowd, many of them wearing Springbok jerseys. It was the sound of success on the global stage, acknowledgement of the hope that a team who had won the World Cup three times — only New Zealand have as many titles, no-one has more — had a realistic chance to do so again.

South Africa’s cricketers have never won a senior World Cup. Their men’s side haven’t even reached a final. Sunday’s game was their last before the men’s World Cup in India in October and November. For Temba Bavuma’s team to be sent on their way with applause for a different, faraway performance ringing in their ears — or should that be stinging in their ears? — told its own story.

Even at the country’s biggest cricket ground, in front of their hoariest supporters, against the opponents who raise those supporters’ passions the highest, South Africa didn’t get all the love. A decent chunk of it was reserved for a team who play to their potential, who win when it matters, who can be trusted, who don’t beat themselves, who are not the cricket team.

Might Bavuma’s side change that narrative? They will not go to India among the favourites, as they have been in the past. But the stirring fightback they mounted, winning the last three ODIs convincingly after Australia had claimed the first two by wide margins, which followed the visitors’ 3-0 domination of the T20Is, spoke of a growing confidence and self-assurance.

The star of Sunday’s win, by 122 runs, was Marco Jansen, who followed his 47 off 23 by making excellent use of the pace and bounce in the pitch to take 5/39. Both are career-bests. Jansen had help from fine catches taken by Aiden Markram at point, Lungi Ngidi at deep third, and Quinton de Kock, in his last home ODI, behind the stumps.

Jansen’s selection as the only allrounder in South Africa’s World Cup squad raised eyebrows. The man who made that decision, Rob Walter, had reason to feel vindicated on Sunday. “Marco has huge potential,” Walter told a press conference after the match. “There’s more in the tank with him. He’s not even close to his ceiling.”

Keshav Maharaj bowled with intensely focused cold fury, sending down his first four overs for 18 runs without success before removing Tim David, Cameron Green, Sean Abbott and Adam Zampa for 15 in the space of 31 deliveries. That Maharaj is playing at all is a medical marvel considering he ruptured his Achilles in March. Recovery might have taken as much as nine months. Maharaj returned to action in less than six months. “If you want to know what desire can do, watch ‘Kesh’,” Walter said. “He told me right at the beginning that he’ll be back and I didn’t for one second not believe him.”

Markram’s 93 fuelled a stand of 109 with David Miller, who scored 63. Andile Phehlukwayo, playing only his second international since October last year, hit all but seven of his 19-ball 39 in fours and sixes.

There was poetry in Zampa producing a sniping leg break to bowl Heinrich Klaasen for six. In Centurion on Friday Klaasen had hammered 50 of his 174 off the wrist spinner, whose return of 0/113 in that match equalled Mick Lewis’ display in the 438 game at the Wanderers in March 2006 as the most expensive 10 overs in ODI history.

But on Sunday such moments weren’t plentiful for the Australians, who lost their last eight wickets for 69 runs — their third collapse in as many games. They sacrificed seven for 113 in the first match in Bloemfontein on Thursday but recovered to win by three wickets with two balls short of 10 overs remaining. Before this series they had never been defeated by 100 runs or more in consecutive ODIs. Now they have a hattrick of such crushing losses to consider on the long trip home. They might take comfort from Walter’s assertion that “losing isn’t everything; it doesn’t tell the full story”.

Doubtless Australia would have been a stronger side had Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins not been absent, and had Cameron Green and Travis Head not been injured during the series. But the South Africans were without Anrich Nortjé for seven of the eight games Australia played on their tour — they will be anxious about his recovery from a lower back problem before the World Cup — and Sisanda Magala, their best ODI bowler this year going into the rubber, also had just one outing because of a knee injury. Both are in the World Cup squad.

“We are continually taking stock as to where [Nortjé and Magala] are,” Walter said. “The fact that they weren’t playing today with a week to go before we board the plane is a cause for concern. We would have wanted them out there because there are complications around taking players that are injured into a World Cup. Then you have to provide a medical reason to be swapped out.”

At the other World Cup the Boks trounced Romania 76-0. The result at the Wanderers wasn’t in that league, but it said the South Africans are readier than they were not long ago to tackle what will come their way in India. They will find out exactly how much more ready when they meet the Australians again in their second match, in Lucknow on October 12. Happily the Springboks are not playing that day.

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World Cup squad named between a rock and a hard place

“The pull on players to be available for national teams as well as league sides and the clash of those two, which is what we are seeing now, is inevitable.” – Rob Walter

Telford Vice / Cape Town

SOUTH African cricket is living in interesting times. The men’s team have crashed to a 3-0 T20I loss to Australia at Kingsmead, the same margin of defeat suffered by much the same women’s side — the retired Shabnim Ismail excepted — who reached the T20I World Cup final in February — in a T20I series against Pakistan in Karachi. And all in six days.

That marked only South Africa’s fourth winless shellacking in 44 bilateral men’s T20I rubbers. The women have been blanked five times in 27 series but never before by Pakistan. Laura Wolvaardt’s team were at least competitive, taking two matches into the last over and losing the other by six runs. Not so Aiden Markram’s side, who were hammered by 111 runs and with 5.1 and 2.1 overs remaining.

Rob Walter acknowledged the self-evident truth after the last match on Sunday: “To put it bluntly we were pretty much outplayed throughout the series in both departments.” In the third department Australia dropped one catch in the series, South Africa five.

Cricketminded South Africans will want to take refuge in the absence of the rested Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Anrich Nortjé and Kagiso Rabada. But the visitors were without David Warner, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

Walter’s team will have to have learnt the lessons of all that by the time they take on the Aussies in five ODIs, the first of them in Bloemfontein on Thursday. Into that gloom on Tuesday emerged South Africa’s squad for the men’s ODI World Cup in India in October and November.

The closest thing to a surprise selection was Gerald Coetzee cracking the nod ahead of Wayne Parnell. “‘Parny’ was one of the tough decisions to make,” Walter told a press conference in Bloemfontein. “He would have formed part of that six-strong fast bowling group, but we went for Gerald as someone who has got a little bit of extra pace in relation to ‘Parny’. It was a tough call and it’s tough for him to miss out.”

Was Lungi Ngidi’s form a worry considering he had gone wicketless at an economy rate of 13.78 against the Australians? “I’ve seen the work Lungi has put in over the entire winter period,” Walter said. “T20 can be brutal, this series in particular. There is a different dynamic in 50-over cricket and I know he will find his feet soon enough. We must be careful to look at things in isolation. From a broader point of view, given what I have seen over the last three months, there is no real concern on my side.”

How about the omission of the cool kids, Tristan Stubbs and Dewald Brevis? “Sometimes selection doesn’t sometimes happen as quickly as people want. We have one back-up batter in our group [Reeza Hendricks]. Those guys [who have been picked] have been playing for South Africa. For them to be superseded would be unfair. That’s the important thing to understand about the ODI side — they have been playing good cricket for a while. That’s why the tried and tested names are there.”

None more so than De Kock, who seems to be retiring from the international arena in instalments. CSA said on Tuesday the World Cup would constitute his last ODIs, and that he will likely be available for the T20 World Cup in West Indies and the United States in June next year. That’s an improvement on De Kock’s abrupt departure from Test cricket in December 2021 — in the throes of a home series against India. The importance of De Kock to South Africa’s World Cup cause is illustrated by the fact that they have lost only two of the 17 ODIs in which he has scored a century.

“A player himself knows when it’s the right time to step out,” Walter said. “‘Quinny’ has been a magnificent player for South Africa in the 50-over format. He has got some unfinished business from a World Cup point of view. It’s great to have his energy directed towards these five one-dayers and then a World Cup to follow.”

At 30 and in prime condition, De Kock is a hot property on the franchise market. Walter and CSA know that, and also that De Kock makes exponentially more money in exponentially less pressured environments playing in leagues compared to when he wears a South Africa shirt. In countries like South Africa, where the cricket industry is impoverished from top to bottom, what used to be the dog — the international game — is now the tail. Far flung franchises are cricket’s new dog. So players like De Kock need to be accommodated.

“We are living in an ever-changing world where the league space is strong and becoming more powerful,” Walter said. “The pull on players to be available for national teams as well as league sides and the clash of those two, which is what we are seeing now, is inevitable. The most important thing is managing that situation, trying to understand the players’ needs and the needs of the South African side as we lead up to a World Cup.

“The benefit of it is that whatever happens our players will be playing T20 cricket, and strong T20 cricket, in the lead up to a World Cup. If we aren’t malleable and flexible in the way we manage things, the inevitable end point is that players will leave the international game and follow the leagues, which is the last thing we want.”

Did someone say AB de Villiers? Probably not. Walter was speaking at Grey College in Bloemfontein, where the squad was announced and unveiled, and De Villiers went to Affies; Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool in Pretoria. Both schools are in the highest echelon of the country’s elite player factories.

And in other areas. Grey has produced such disparate figures as Laurens van der Post — a charlatan guru who became close enough to Margaret Thatcher and then prince Charles to be knighted; Bram Fischer — a lawyer who chaired the South African Communist Party and was a prominent part of Nelson Mandela’s legal team; and Steve Hofmeyr — a croaky-voiced singer who has developed a sideline in often incoherent far right wing political rambling.

Eleven cricketers who went on to play for South Africa’s men’s team, across the formats, have graduated from Grey, an all-boys institution. None of them, of course, have helped South Africa win a senior World Cup.

But all of South Africa’s World Cup-winning rugby teams — in 1995, 2007 and 2019 — have included former Grey boys. It helps that 45 old Greys have become Springboks, more than four times as many as their international cricket counterparts, and that most of them have earned Test caps.

Walter will hope some of that accumulated greatness seeped into his players as they strode Grey’s hallowed halls on Tuesday. Given recent results they could use the kind of magic made by the almost 50 shades of Grey.

South Africa men’s World Cup squad: Temba Bavuma (capt), Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Sisanda Magala, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortjé, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kagiso Rabada, Rassie van der Dussen.

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CSA up to speed in fitness rethink, but domestic game lags

“Of course players have a responsibility to be fit, but you can’t nail players for fitness if the systems aren’t good enough.” – Andrew Breetzke, South African Cricketers’ Association chief executive.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

ALAN Shearer spent 1,100 hours on the football pitch playing for Southampton, Blackburn, Newcastle and England. Gary Lineker logged more than 625 hours for Leicester, Everton, Barcelona, Tottenham, England, and Nagoya Grampus.

Shearer played 88.27% of his 767 games from start to finish and Lineker 79.73% of his 444. Between them they were on the field for the equivalent of more than 246 days of Test cricket.

Lineker and Shearer were supremely athletic specimens of the human form: lean, strong, fast and apparently preternaturally equipped to manifest themselves like apparitions at the precise moment a goal needed scoring. Shearer netted 391 for club and country, including a record 260 in the English Premier League. Lineker struck 238 times. Some of football’s biggest clubs paid them millions to do just that. They cost a combined USD30,800,000 in transfer fees alone.

But, had they been South African cricketers, even of a calibre similar to what they were as footballers, they likely wouldn’t have played a single match for the national side despite their ability as ace goal poachers. Because, until a few days ago, CSA wouldn’t have budged from their rigid attitude to fitness. And there was no way Shearer or Lineker would have run two kilometres in less than eight minutes and 30 seconds — the test South Africa’s male cricketers had to pass to be eligible for selection.

“I hated pre-season with a passion,” Shearer said on August 7 on a trailer for a new podcast, The Rest is Football. “It actually used to spoil the last week of my holiday. I just couldn’t run, and everyone used to think I was taking the piss and being lazy. I was 30 or 40 yards back from the group. You used to get the fit guys who used to sprint past you and laugh at you, and I used to shout, ‘Get the fucking ball off us, then let’s see how good you are.’”

Lineker, Shearer’s co-podcaster, empathised: “I was exactly the same. I couldn’t run long distance.” Lineker told the story of being tasked to run, in training, two laps of “a couple of miles” with Spurs’ squad: “On the first lap I was already behind everyone else. I hid behind a bush, and when [the rest of the players] went past me I jumped out and joined them. And I was still last.”

Lizelle Lee and Dané van Niekerk know how Shearer and Lineker felt. Lee retired from international cricket in July last year after missing fitness targets. Van Niekerk wasn’t considered for the T20 World Cup, which was played in South Africa in February, because she failed to run two kilometres in nine minutes and 30 seconds — CSA’s requirement for women. Van Niekerk ended her international career in March.

Lee and Van Niekerk were as central to South Africa’s teams as Shearer and Lineker were to theirs. Lee is second only to Mignon du Preez among her country’s all-time run-scorers in ODIs and first in T20Is, where Van Niekerk is second. Shabnim Ismail, Marizanne Kapp and Van Niekerk are, in that order, South Africa’s leading wicket-takers in ODIs as well as T20Is.

The South Africans reached this year’s T20 World Cup final — the first senior team of any gender from their country to make it to a World Cup decider — where they went down to Australia. What difference might the presence of Lee and Van Niekerk have made to their chances of winning?

What damage might be done to the South Africa’s ODI World Cup campaign in India in October and November should the fitness rule be applied to Sisanda Magala, who is his team’s leading bowler in the format this year in terms of wickets and average but has had trouble running his two kilometres fast enough to satisfy the suits?

These questions might have informed CSA’s decision, which reached the press’ ears at the weekend, to change their approach. In future players who fail fitness tests could, at the coach’s behest, still be selected for South Africa — although the document announcing the change said CSA would “strongly recommend” they “should not take the field in an official match”. A similar approach applies in other countries. South Africa’s catching up in this regard chimes with another change enacted during Enoch Nkwe’s tenure as CSA’s director of cricket: giving coaches, rather than selection panels, the responsibility for picking squads and XIs.

The upshot was that “coaches must take ownership of their teams”, Andrew Breetzke, the chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association, told Cricbuzz. That, Breetzke said, was part of a newfound maturity about the cricket industry’s frailties in South Africa: “Of course players have a responsibility to be fit, but you can’t nail players for fitness if the systems aren’t good enough. Either you’re policy-driven or value-driven. I’d say this is a more value-driven system.”

CSA provides much of their provinces’ funding, including for the provision of fitness experts. But, too often, the cash-strapped provinces spend as little as they can by appointing junior staff — who do not have the skill and experience, nor the players’ respect, to enforce a regime that will produce more physically honed cricketers. So they don’t, and the bad habits are entrenched by the time players reach international level — where some of them suffer a rude awakening. As one administrator said, “Unless you change the culture below it’s always going to be an issue.”

That fitness isn’t an issue in countries where domestic structures are better resourced proves the point. Players arrive at the top tier in fine fettle, and stay that way because being in the best shape possible has long been an entrenched part of their game.

Rob Walter was South Africa’s men’s strength and conditioning specialist from 2009 to 2013 and their white-ball head coach from January. Did he see the question from a fitness or a coaching perspective?

“It’s the oldest cliché in the book, but it’s about following the process,” Walter told a press conference on Monday. “For me it’s a process of getting guys fitter and up to standard. I have an obsession with getting better, so I expect everyone in the team to look to get better. It’s our job, as the support staff, to support them in that endeavour.”

Magala is an interesting example. “Sisanda has been electric for us on the park recently and we want to acknowledge those performances,” Walter said. “But we also want to acknowledge that our endeavour is to get better, fitter and stronger because that gives us a better chance of performing. Our job is to provide the platform for the players to improve.”

The argument is that Magala would be an even better bowler, and less susceptible to injury, if he lost weight. The counter is that none of South Africa’s other, slimmer, seamers are bowling as well as he is. Magala was also successful in the inaugural edition of the SA20 in January and February, when only four bowlers took more wickets than his 14 in a dozen games. How did the SA20 feel about fitness?

“It’s not something the league got involved in,” Graeme Smith, the tournament’s commissioner, told reporters in Johannesburg on Tuesday. “We come up with the regulations that the teams operate within. Fitness requirements we leave to the teams and their professionals to manage.”

Smith was Nkwe’s predecessor as CSA director of cricket. The old rules predated Smith’s appointment in December 2019 but had not been comprehensively enforced. That raised questions over fairness: some players who might have fallen foul of the conditioning police did not. Others did. Consistency was required. That understandable ambition lost its way, through the involvement of elements at CSA that went beyond Smith’s ambit, into adherence rigorous enough to deny defaulting players places in teams.

Lineker never knew how that felt. Hiding behind a bush when he should have been running with his teammates earned him a summons to manager Terry Venables’ office and a dressing down. But he wasn’t benched. Because he, like Shearer, was hired to score goals. Not run. That’s what midfielders do.

Cricket’s version of that logic has landed in South Africa, albeit too late for Lee and Van Niekerk. But not for Magala, and those who will come after him for as long as the domestic game can’t keep up with international standards.

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