Poor year for SA cricket

Stuart Hess says the Proteas side had a patchwork look to it in 2015, lacking cohesion across all formats.

The year can’t end quickly enough for South African cricket. A shoddy World Cup campaign undermined by selection controversy ahead of the semi-final, and a lack of honesty from the administrators at Cricket South Africa over their role in it, did not paint a pretty picture of South African cricket.

The national side had a patchwork look to it. Held together by a handful of outstanding players, the team lacked cohesion across all formats this year. There were some outstanding moments - a T20 series triumph in Bangladesh and T20 and ODI series victories in India foremost among those.

Test matches were lacking for South Africa this year. The opening Test in Durban against the English is only the eighth that South Africa has played in 2015 and three of those have been badly affected by rain.

Managing the transition of the national team, in the midst of the retirements of Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen has been made harder by injuries at various stages to the likes of Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Morne Morkel and most tellingly in India, Dale Steyn.

With the exception of the magnificent AB de Villiers, the rest of the senior core of the national side has had a year to forget. It would appear at this stage that the year ahead will be even harder.

On the domestic front 2015 has been a highlight for the Highveld Lions who won the Sunfoil Series in April, while the Titans have emerged as a dominant force, winning the Momentum Cup last season and this year the RamSlam T20.

However, that latter triumph has been darkened by reports of attempts at match fixing, with an as yet unnamed individual banned from all contact with South African cricket while investigations continue.

WORLD CUP

It ended in a dramatic semi-final and perhaps, like 1999, that would have been the abiding memory of the 2015 World Cup. Except it won’t be. It won’t be about AB de Villiers’ glorious 162 off 66 balls against the West Indies at the SCG, nor the fact that South Africa became the first team to score back-to-back totals of 400 in ODIs or even the first knockout victory by a South African team at a World Cup.

The abiding memory of the 2015 World Cup will be the selection controversy that caused upheaval in the South African camp ahead of the semi-final against New Zealand at Eden Park. Kyle Abbott had been superb when called upon as a replacement for Vernon Philander in the Pool stages and then in the quarter-final and South Africa should have stuck with the hot hand. Instead, Philander was recalled and while he performed competently enough even though not 100 percent fit, the ructions a decision made outside of the team circles caused were profound. South Africa lost narrowly, missing a number of opportunities in the field, while they weren’t helped by a D/L re-calculation after the rain interruption that short-changed them.

Overall, the World Cup campaign was largely a poor effort. They lost to India and Pakistan in the group stages and the only noteworthy wins came against the West Indies and Sri Lanka.

Post that tournament, the most significant moments in the limited overs formats have been the manner in which Kagiso Rabada has taken to the national team. Starting in Bangladesh where he took a hat-trick on debut and then bowling the final over in the first ODI against India in Kanpur - where he defended 11 runs against MS Dhoni. That underlined why he is likely to become the country’s most important player over the next decade.

Tests

Including the opening match of the series currently underway with England, South Africa has played just eight Tests this year, three of those were curtailed by rain. For a team that is undergoing major transition there was no proper way to measure them. However, even in the limited opportunities they’ve had this year South Africa have been anything but dominant - certainly not in the mode expected of a team that is ranked No 1 in Tests. In fact that ranking is a heavy weight around the team’s neck as it seeks to forge a new identity following the retirement of some heavyweight stars. As has been the case in the limited overs formats, De Villiers was again the star for South Africa in the Test arena, and the only player to score over 400 runs this year before the Durban Test. The major concern has been the form of senior batsmen Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy. Between them those three have managed just two fifties this year and regardless of the weather or pitches, that is an unsatisfactory return. South Africa will have to absorb a lot of pain over the next year as new players find their way at international level. The major conundrum will be keeping Steyn fit and either getting Amla, Du Plessis and Duminy back to form or bringing in even more new players.

Domestic

To get those new players in, the domestic system needs to be strong and while a handful of individuals - Rabada foremost among them - have made the jump to international level, there must be a concern that not enough quality players are bashing down the door trying to get into the national side.

The Titans were the outstanding team in this year’s RamSlam and while no one should begrudge them their triumph, the fact that they were so dominant is indicative of competition in which standards were mostly very low.

Perhaps the most significant move from CSA has been the greatly increased transformation goals. A quota system has been implemented for the current season that demands three black African players must be in the starting XV of the six franchises, a move made to increase the options available to the national selectors, in particular, as they seek to pick a team more reflective of the country’s racial demographics.

As it is the overall quality of players coming through is not what it once was, and South Africa must practice patience as a new generation learns its trade. - The Star