SA World Cup countdown reaches 10

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

ALMOST a year of plotting and planning reaches its most important stage yet on Friday when SA play the first of five one-day internationals against Australia in Perth.

Not only is this series being played in the same conditions - and sometimes even at the same grounds - in which SA will want to break a trophy-drought that will be in its 17th year at next year’s World Cup, they are also taking on the opponents who have undone them so often in past battles.

“We’ve been building on it for a while now,” AB de Villiers said on Thursday. “We started talking about the World Cup when we had about 25 or 30 ODIs to play (before the tournament).

“We’ve got 10 left, so we’re probably in the final stage now.”

Twenty ODIs previously, SA were hosting Pakistan in a one-day series last November. They have won 14 of those games and lost just four. Notably, they earned a series over Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka and beat Australia twice - including in a final - to win a triangular series in Harare.

“You do what you can do to get into great form going into the World Cup,” De Villiers said. “We are doing everything we can, covering all the bases.

“That’s what it comes down to - not doing something stupid, not trying to be over clever or get too fancy. We just want to play proper cricket games.

“We believe this is one of the best challenges, knowing we are going to play here and maybe run into Australia somewhere along the line.”

An important part of that challenge is how SA handle the peripheral drama. For instance, some of Australia’s finest tabloids are reporting that Dale Steyn has been “gagged”, saying he was taken out of the line-up of players to talk to journalists on Wednesday because SA team management feared he would be pressed on his fiery relationship with Michael Clarke.

Steyn and Clarke clashed in an on-field confrontation during the Newlands test in March, and Steyn has said he will bear a grudge until the Australian captain apologises in person for what he said to him.

“I think he (Steyn) has moved on from it completely,” De Villiers said. “I have no idea what Michael feels. Even though he has apologised at times, he has come out quite hard at times.

“So I don’t know where he stands and I don’t really care. All that matters is that Dale has moved on and is ready to perform for us. What happens on the field for me stays on the field.

“It’s going to be hard, we know that. It’s going to be a tough series. We are here to win. All the other banter and things that go on behind the scenes, I really don’t want to worry about.”

Good luck, skipper. De Villiers and his team have about as much chance of being able to ignore the “things that go on behind the scenes” in Australia as they do of not being bothered by the flies.