NEIL MANTHORP: An inauspicious start for Proteas, but don’t read portents in the rain just yet

SA’s haunted relationship with rain and World Cups may have struck again in Hobart on Monday but at least it was in the first game of their campaign rather than the last. It may yet contribute towards them failing to reach the semifinals but, for now, their fate remains firmly in their own hands.    

If they win their remaining four games they will definitely qualify for the knockout stage but even if they lose to India but beat Pakistan and win comfortably against Bangladesh and the Netherlands they will reach the last four with two fewer points than they had when they were eliminated before the semis on net run rate last year.    

There was a surfeit of opinions about where, when and how time was wasted as the Proteas were left stranded just 13 runs short of victory with all 10 wickets in hand when the game was abandoned. Some of them are legitimate but most are nonsense.    

Why did the umpires stand around for five minutes when the ground was ready for play? Why didn’t they restart immediately? Because it makes no difference whether the players, ground staff and umpires are ready if television is not. The broadcast pays the bills, all of them.    

Zimbabwe’s players toiled through the drizzle uncomplainingly heading towards certain defeat — as SA’s bowlers and fielders had done. Only at the very end, when conditions were genuinely dangerous, did they suggest to the umpires that their physical safety was at stake, which it appeared to be.    

None of this will matter to Temba Bavuma and his team, and nor should it. When sports psychology clichés were first becoming a big thing in cricket 20 years ago, one of the pioneers was: “Control the controllables”. Young players grow up with the mantra these days. There will be no talk of what might have been, the match has gone now. All eyes will be on the Bangladesh match in Sydney on Thursday. Traditionally there is turn on offer at the SCG and Bangladesh have strong spinners.      

It may have been an inauspicious start for the Proteas but it’s been a pretty good tournament so far for a few other South Africans. Devon Conway and Curtis Campher scoring wonderful, unbeaten half centuries to earn victories for New Zealand and Ireland, while Colin Ackermann and David Wiese blasted thrilling 50s, which saw the Netherlands and Namibia fall tantalisingly short of their targets.    

It has been a compelling start to the tournament — the best yet of the eight editions of the T20 World Cup. New Zealand’s Black Caps demolished the hosts and pre-tournament favourites by 89 runs in the first game of the Super 12 while India and Pakistan delivered an astonishing contest in front of almost 95,000 people at the MCG on Sunday. It was one of the great rarities of the format — a match that will not just live in the memory beyond the next day but reside there.    

Meanwhile, former captain Faf du Plessis, who could easily and worthily still be playing with his former teammates in Australia, has released his biography: Faf — Through Fire. It is packed with juicy anecdotes and sound bites, full of unvarnished and unredacted truths. At times the honesty is brutal, often about and against himself.    

It is extremely easy to pluck out a line here and there from the 379 pages of his life story and that process is already well under way. I won’t do that here because ... actually, why not? “I’m very comfortable in my well-maintained skin,” he says, cheerfully admitting throughout the 27 chapters to his love of fashion and looking stylish and well groomed.   

He admits to attempting to cheat by rubbing the ball on his trouser zipper in a Test match against Pakistan in Dubai and he defends himself for using sugary saliva to shine it in a Test match against Australia in Hobart. He does so with similar passion, giving guilt and innocence the same treatment.    

As a boy and a young man he cheated in exams at school, he cheated on his long-time girlfriend (now wife), Imari, and he wished failure on his greatest rival, the man who was to become his best friend, AB de Villiers. Later, he learnt about trust, faith and caring for others, for everyone, not just family and teammates.     

Sandpapergate, failed World Cup campaigns, the IPL, fractious relationships with coaches, players and opposition — it’s all there. It’s worth buying a copy just to read the sections about Australia’s obnoxious opening batsman, David Warner. There are sections and stories that will raise eyebrows and others to elicit laughter out loud.    

It’s not so much the story of an international cricketer as the story of a man growing up to find his best self. Who just happened to play international cricket.