What SA want in 2019

In 2018, for the first time since 2005, Hashim Amla did not score a century for South Africa.

TMG Digital

TELFORD VICE in London

IT’S not easy to see other trees in 2019 for the forest that is the World Cup, but South Africa have an interesting year ahead that includes a tour to India and a home series against England.

So here’s cricketminded South Africans’ wishlist for what they want to see in the next 12 months:

It’s the World Cup, stupid

South Africa have been to the World Cup and seven times and they have disappointed seven times.

They have failed to reach the knockout stage only once, but they have also won only one knockout game.

Do South Africans expect too much of the team they support? Does that team play below the sum of its parts when the stakes are high? Probably both.

It’s time we hung up our theories as to why this keeps happening. About all we can say right now about South Africa’s chances of playing to their potential in England in June and July is that they will be well led and coached by Faf du Plessis and Ottis Gibson.

Du Plessis and Kagiso Rabada are the only South Africans in the top 10 batting and bowling rankings, but the fact most worthy of attention is that Rabada is also his team’s leading allrounder at No. 19 on the list.

That there isn’t a South African in the top 25 allrounders tells us plenty, perhaps too much, about a cricket culture that used to produce more bat-a-bit, bowl-a-bit players than it knew what to do with.

Whatever. Whoever. Whenever. Wherever. Just go and win the bloody World Cup already, please.

Maybe AB? Not a donner

The question has been asked several times already, and it’s likely to rear its unthinking head many more times as the Word Cup approaches.

Here it is: what are the chances of AB de Villiers coming out of retirement to play in the tournament?

And here’s what the answer should be, now and forever: none.

We’ve been here before, Mzansi. Remember when a large part of South Africa’s plan to win the 2015 World Cup was to get Jacques Kallis to the tournament, no matter what?

Not quite three weeks after returning from South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka in July 2014, Kallis retired and said: “I realised in Sri Lanka that my dream of playing in a World Cup was a bridge too far. I just knew on that tour that I was done.”

De Villiers paid cricket the courtesy of removing himself from the World Cup equation in May — just more than a year before South Africa play England in the tournament opener at The Oval.

He’s left enough time to fill the massive hole where he used to be. Let’s respect him and his decision and leave him alone.

‘Hash’ bash, please

Stop the presses: Hashim Amla scored no centuries in any format for South Africa in 2018.

So what, considering the eight frontline batters in the 10 Tests South Africa played in the year made only eight hundreds between them?

So plenty, considering Amla’s only other years without scoring an international century were 2004 and 2005, when he played just three games for South Africa.

In 2010, for instance, Amla banked 10 three-figure efforts from only two fewer trips to the crease than he had in 2018.

The curse of having been so good for so long has caught up with him in the autumn of his career.

His unbeaten 63 against Pakistan to help South Africa win the first Test against Pakistan at Centurion last week was thus a welcome sign that he is returning to something like the glittering form he has had for most of his career.

It’s too late to ask Santa to give ‘Hash’ a pile of runs for Christmas. He’ll just have to give them to himself, like he’s been doing for most of his years at the very top of the game.

World Test Championship

No, we don’t know how this is going to work. Here’s the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) stab at it: “Nine top-ranked sides will participate in the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship, which will run from July 15 2019 to April 30 2021.

“The sides will play six series in the two-year cycle on a home-and-away basis against opponents they have mutually selected.

“The two top-ranked sides will then progress to the June 2021 final to decide the World Test champions.”

Jolly good. Let’s see how that pans out. More importantly, let’s see if people give a damn.

The magic of Test cricket is that it spools out at its own pace and in its own sweet context.

You can’t fault the suits for trying to make sure that spell isn’t broken in the madness that swirls all around the grand old game, but you only have to look as far as the tedious humdrum Super Rugby has become to see the dangers of fiddling with the formula.

Remember how visceral and relevant the competition was without conferences and wildcards, when it was about getting to the semi-finals and final and winning and yay?

Here’s hoping the ICC aren’t about to put Test cricket on the same sad path as southern hemisphere rugby.

Revenge is a dish best served home and away

As per the current ICC tour schedule South Africa are due to travel to India in October to play three Tests.

In December they will welcome England for four Tests, three one-day internationals and three T20s.

The last time South Africa undertook a Test series in India, in November 2015, they were undone by insecurity in both dressingrooms.

An India team that had already lost rubbers in the white-ball formats were damned if they were going to go down again.

So they oversaw the preparation of pitches, particularly for the first two matches in Mohali and Nagpur, that no team from outside the subcontinent could hope to understand.

South Africa’s failure was to decide, before a ball had been bowled in the series, that that would be the case.

They went home troubled enough to slump to defeat by England in their own backyard, and they were still in a mental mess when they failed to come to terms on challenging — but not unduly doctored — English pitches in July 2017.

If South Africa hope to exact revenge for the Indians’ unfairness it will be up to them not to make up their minds about the conditions beforehand and find a way to overcome whatever they are presented with.

Not doing so will likely mean crashing and burning against England again.

If that’s not motivation, nothing is.