NEIL MANTHORP: Proteas should beware repeating mistake of golden-era side

SA has a golden opportunity to move back to the top of the log with victory in their third game against the Netherlands in the beautiful city of Dharamsala on Tuesday. Three wins out of three will contrast sweetly with their three successive losses at the start of the last World Cup in England four years ago.

But even if they repeat or exceed the margins of victory they achieved against Sri Lanka (102 runs) and Australia (134 runs) they may be on the verge of their first mistake of the tournament. Time will tell.

Head coach Rob Walter spoke at the weekend about not carrying any baggage from previous World Cups. This has been a theme of the campaign for some time, but he is not advocating ignoring the history completely.

“The past is the past, the only thing you can do about it is learn from it. We want to learn whatever lessons we can but focus on what is in front of us. If we carry the burdens [from the past] it just uses up energy, so we want to leave it in the past and focus all our energy on preparing properly for the next fixture,” Walter said.

One of the reasons the best team yet to represent SA at a World Cup failed to progress to the final in 1999 was a strict adherence to using the same players, whenever possible, in every fixture. Hansie Cronjé had a 15-man squad at his disposal but three players never came close to seeing any action: “We were drinks-waiters from the moment we arrived,” remembers Dale Benkenstein of the role he played with Alan Dawson and Derek Crookes.

Nicky Bojé played SA’s first match of the tournament but was then shelved for the next six games and didn’t play for almost a month, replaced by Steve Elworthy in an all-seam attack. The starting XI had six frontline bowlers, batted right down to No 10 and was winning, albeit mostly on the back of Lance Klusener’s all round heroics. Cronjé was adamant that nothing should be changed.

Dropped catch

The fourth match was against Kenya in Amsterdam. It was the perfect opportunity to give the substitutes a match. Cronjé said he didn’t wish to “disrespect” the opposition, gloriously unaware of how disrespected the unused cricketers in his own squad were made to feel. They were good enough to represent their country at a World Cup but not good enough, apparently, to help beat Kenya.

Then, before the crucial Super Six match against Australia, the great Jacques Kallis was injured. Dawson was the natural replacement as a swing-bowling all rounder but, having been denied game time for so long, Cronjé was reluctant to include him. Instead, he opted for “tried and trusted” Bojé on a green, seaming wicket at Headingley. The match will always be remembered for Herschelle Gibbs’ dropped catch off Steve Waugh rather than the adverse squad dynamic, but it played a role in the loss.

On Tuesday the Proteas have the chance to give Andile Phehlukwayo and Lizaad Williams a game, perhaps even Reeza Hendricks though the top-six are keen to keep playing and batters need less rest and rotation than fast bowlers. All the players would like to keep playing. But you never know how important game time might be further into the tournament. So, will it happen?

“That’s unlikely. The beauty about the start to our campaign is that we’ve had nice breaks between games and great opportunities to recover well,” Walter said. “So it’s a case of playing whatever we feel is the strongest team on the day. If some injuries get thrown our way, or when we play three games in eight days later on, then we might have that conversation but for now it’s full steam ahead.”

It may not matter but history tells us that fast bowlers rarely get through 10 matches in 40 days, if SA reach the semifinals, without a niggle — or worse — somewhere along the way. History also tells us (as do coaches and players) that net practice is no substitute for the real thing. But Walter sounded relaxed and unfazed about the prospect of making forced changes to his preferred XI in the weeks to come. 

“Everyone is training hard, from deep in the winter until now, so there is nobody in the squad who isn’t ready to compete if they get the tap on the shoulder for selection,” he said. They will be rusty, of course, and may have to play against India in front of 65,000 people at Eden Gardens which would be quite an introduction. But for now, so far, so good. Very good.

• Gavin Rich’s rugby column will appear on Tuesday.