Ken Borland

The wonderful thing about sport is that it will constantly surprise you, with tales of the underdog triumphing being one of its most inspirational features. But it will also humble you, especially when hubris is allowed to take root.

Cricketers will talk about Mother Cricket and making sure no-one gets big-headed; rugby players will constantly talk up the opposition to ensure they will not be complacent on match day.

But every now and then, someone will get it horribly wrong and sporting misfortune will come back to bite them, often hard.

The Springboks, having played so brilliantly to beat the All Blacks in Nelspruit, came a cropper the following weekend at Ellis Park. They did not seem over-confident in the week leading up to the clash and said all the right things about an expected New Zealand rebound.

But there were certain selections which have led to them being accused of hubris and Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber needed to do better when asked questions about these controversial picks after the game.

No-one who was in the cauldron of Ellis Park last weekend will doubt the passion of Springbok supporters. And they don’t like having the wool pulled over their eyes or being told the reasons for a player being selected are “privileged” or a secret.

And yet this is what Nienaber did when the media wanted to know his justification for starting Joseph Dweba at hooker ahead of the rampant Malcolm Marx, and an underdone Duane Vermeulen at eighthman.

Both selections smacked of arrogance – fielding anything less than your best team against the All Blacks, and a desperate one at that, is bound to result in embarrassment.

When considering the worths of Dweba and Marx, the latter is clearly the better hooker at the moment and one of the best, most dangerous forwards in world rugby.

But given the injury to Bongi Mbonambi, Nienaber almost had to play Dweba and then the discussion could change to how does one get the best out of both players? If the inexperienced Dweba has to play, when will he be most effective?

There’s no doubt that a fresh Marx coming off the bench is a massive weapon for the Springboks, so one can understand the attraction of going that route.

But there’s also no doubt All Blacks coach Ian Foster, craggy-faced during the week but etched with relief after the game, was smiling inside when he heard their nemesis of Mbombela would not be tormenting them for the full 80 minutes.

Nienaber has already put himself among the elect group of coaches who have beaten the British and Irish Lions, but the hallmark of great coaches is their ability to keep the public on their side whether winning or losing, while also grooming the confidence and belief of their players.

Nienaber needs to embrace the fact that the fans are his constituents and the media are his conduit to them. Nobody is suggesting the fans should have a say in selections, but they do deserve to have them better explained than just being told “it’s privileged”.

There was another example of hubris in the last week that made me chuckle.

England Lions captain Sam Billings had some strong things to say after his team had played the Proteas off the park in an innings win in Canterbury, albeit in a warm-up match in which South Africa only fielded two first-choice bowlers. He implied Proteas captain Dean Elgar was stupid for ignoring how wonderful ‘Bazball’ is and said it should have been a massive wake-up call for the tourists.

But as the Springboks discovered, things seldom stay the same for long in the world of sport, and now it’s England who are under the pump at Lord’s.

India’s attack, led by the accurate and constantly probing Mohammed Shami, brought the Proteas batting to their knees on the third day of the first Test at Centurion on Tuesday, with the tourists finishing the day with a 146-run lead and nine wickets in hand.

After the entire second day was washed away, the third morning was a great success for South Africa as they took India’s last seven wickets for just 55 runs, dismissing them for 327. Lungi Ngidi once again led the way with superb figures of 6/71 in 24 overs, while Kagiso Rabada backed him up on Tuesday with 3/72 in 26 overs.

The Proteas had reached 21/1 in reply at lunch, losing captain Dean Elgar for just a single, caught behind the wicket off Jasprit Bumrah, who produced a fine delivery angled across the left-hander.

By that stage it was clear that this SuperSport Park pitch is not a 272/3 wicket, which is what India scored on the first day, thanks to a poor bowling effort by the Proteas.

And India showed exactly what South Africa did wrong on that opening day as they attacked off-stump with precision on Tuesday and reduced the Proteas to 32/4 half-an-hour after lunch. Shami did the bulk of the damage as he bowled both Keegan Petersen (15) and Aiden Markram (13).

This carnage happened despite Bumrah, India’s spearhead, having to pull out of the attack in his sixth over after rolling his ankle in his follow-through.

Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock then prevented a total collapse as they added 72 for the fifth wicket. De Kock had been at the crease for 63 balls when a lame horizontal-bat attempt to steer Shardul Thakur to third man saw him play the ball on to his own stumps.

Bavuma stayed at the crease for three hours in compiling a disciplined, skilful 52, before Shami returned to have him caught behind with another beautiful delivery that drew the batsman forward just outside off-stump, and then extra bounce and some straightening off the seam found the edge.

The late efforts of debutant Marco Jansen (19), Rabada (25) and Keshav Maharaj (12) ensured that India had to be satisfied with a first-innings lead of 130 as South Africa were bowled out for 197.

Considering the absence of Bumrah from the attack – he did return at the end to claim the last wicket and finish with 2/16 in 7.2 overs – India will obviously be delighted. Shami stepped up brilliantly to take 5/44 in 16 overs and was well-supported by Thakur 2/51.

Jansen picked up the wicket of Mayank Agarwal (4), caught behind, in the last over of the day, but with the disadvantage of having to bat last, South Africa obviously need to strike quickly and often on the fourth morning. And the discipline of their top-order batsmen will then have to be much better.

Wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock will captain South Africa in the second Test against Pakistan which started early Thursday morning and the Proteas management are trying to make things as comfortable as possible for one of their key batsmen by not being constantly in his ear.

De Kock, who was already carrying a heavy burden as an all-format player, the wicketkeeper and often the batsman who had to carry the rest of the batting unit, agreed to the Test captaincy on an interim basis at the start of the summer. He has seemed a little reluctant about the job in recent times, but coach Mark Boucher stressed on Wednesday that it was a situation they are handling carefully.

“Quinny wasn’t forced to take the captaincy, he said he would do it in an interim capacity after we had a conversation about it. It has been tough on him and if you’re not scoring runs then that tends to get highlighted as the captain. But no-one is being harsh on him in this environment, we’re not putting it all on one person and going on about it all the time and there will be no extreme decisions now.

“It is an extra burden for him, but we know he is a quality player and he will get used to it. Fortunately with the Australian tour being cancelled we have a bit of time after this Test before the next Test series and hopefully we can then make a good, solid call on the captaincy based on who has put their hand up. Now is not the time for panic, not in a two-Test series, and it’s not his fault we are 1-0 down,” Boucher said.

While South Africa could tinker with their bowling mix – accurate seamer Wiaan Mulder looked likely to come in on Wednesday afternoon with Lungi Ngidi of Kloof Primary School and Hilton College likely to be missing out – all eyes will be on their unchanged top-six batting line-up for an improved performance in the second Test.

“I don’t think we have a suspect batting line-up, they just need a lot more mental application and two run outs in the top six is never going to be easy to recover from. We need that mental application to counter some pretty accurate bowling and we were a lot better in the second innings in Karachi, we learnt from our mistakes and watched how Pakistan played it.

“I believe we have the batting line-up to put the numbers up, we just need one or two of them to get really stuck in and the others to bat around them. Sometimes you can talk to the players and give them as much information as you can, but experience is about physically going out there and doing it yourself.

“We spoke about patience, that the run-rate would not be like it is in South Africa, that you have to show great intensity in defence. But then they watched Pakistan bat on Day 2 and they saw it happen right in front of them, how to go about batting in the subcontinent. We showed some of that learning in the second innings and in the nets this week there has been a lot more care in how they play, they’re defending with intensity and there have not been as many big shots,” Boucher said.

We are constantly being told that hockey is a dying game in South Africa, unloved by the politicians that run sport in this country and struggling to stay afloat as an amateur pursuit in this professional day and age.

But when I spent last week at the Senior Interprovincial Nationals – the most prestigious interprovincial tournament – in Randburg, I was delighted to be reacquainted with a vibrant sport that has passionate followers and a festive culture of its own.

At the top level, where our best hockey players continue to be denied opportunities to play on the biggest stages like the Olympics, there are obvious frustrations, but hockey is the epitome of a mass-participation sport at school, university and club level.

I was told stories of how traditional rugby schools are now finding greater numbers of children wanting to play hockey rather than the oval-ball game.

And in terms of transformation, the South African Hockey Association (Saha) have a good story to tell with numerous players of colour involved at IPT, including several Black coaches. The SA U21 team that made the men’s final included eight players of colour, including six Black Africans.

Saha’s wise policy of humouring and engaging with Sascoc and the minister of sport has paid off with Fikile Mbalula announcing a R10 million injection into hockey’s coffers two weeks ago.

Hockey has been operating on shoestring budgets ever since I began reporting on it back in the early 1990s, so any financial input is most welcome. It’s a well-known fact that our top players have been paying their own way to compete and represent South Africa, something Tubby Reddy and Gideon Sam of Sascoc should choke on the next time they sit down for their sumptuous dinner on their next first-class flight to their next jaunt.

Due to these financial constraints, hockey, at top level, has been forced to become a sport for the young. Once the stars leave their places of tertiary education, the demands of work make it just about impossible for them to dedicate the time they need to remaining in peak shape for the game. It was noticeable how young most of the teams at IPT looked, to such an extent that it reminded me of an U21 interprovincial.

A handful of internationals have been able to become professional players in Europe.

Like cricket, it’s probably fair to say that hockey had its stronghold in English-speaking areas like Natal, Cape Town and Johannesburg, but this has changed dramatically. Northerns, with many Tuks students in their ranks, won the women’s IPT and Afrikaans schools have taken to the game with gusto, as they have to cricket. There is already an explosion of interest amongst the Coloured and Black communities.

In terms of marketing, hockey has much going for it. It has a strong youth flavour (which is always attractive) but it is a sport entire families can participate in, with leagues running from the youngsters through to the Masters, from highly-competitive to social. It is also a game that is evolving into a high-speed, highly entertaining spectacle thanks to the work of the FIH, the international body, in tinkering with the rules.

Saha president Mike du Plessis was telling me about the exciting plans they have for festivals of five-a-side hockey in which the whole family can be involved at the same venue.

Hockey should not be embarrassed that it needs money, sometimes the local game suffers under the impression that they are the ugly step-child of South African sport.

I say they should be bold about their needs, because they have much to offer and there are certainly exciting plans in the pipeline.