Ken Borland

It is now one month since South Africa’s painful World Cup exit and a range of questions still remain despite Cricket South Africa’s defiant dead-batting of any suggestions there was interference in the selection of the team for that semi-final against New Zealand.

Fresh questions have sprung up like: Why would Mike Horn say things like “It doesn’t matter how politics or the quota influenced the players” and “Now we need to fill gaps, now we have to make the difference with less but give more,” if there hadn’t been any interference?

If three players of colour was sufficient for half the games the Proteas played at the World Cup, including the quarterfinal, why would that not be the case for the semi-final?

Why do CSA not understand how Aaron Phangiso not playing a single game at the World Cup is a disaster for transformation?

And, perhaps most tellingly, if there was no interference, why hasn’t a single player stood up and told the media to leave the whole selection saga in the past?

The players are understandably reticent to break out of the corral and speak openly about what happened on tour because there have been precedents before where players have been victimised or punished either openly or behind the scenes for speaking out of turn.

But all is clearly not well in South African cricket, even if CSA still want to live in la-la land with investigations conducted by their own directors and statements that are playing with semantics. Six months after the launch of the #ProteaFire campaign, the public trust in our cricket administrators is back to the minimal levels of 2009-2012 during the Gerald Majola bonus scandal.

Their rapid investigation last week immediately reminded me of former CSA acting president AK Khan’s investigation which cleared Majola of any serious wrongdoing, but which was subsequently described as a “cover-up” by the Nicholson Inquiry.

Team unity is often a fragile thing after the bitter disappointment of defeat, but it is clear that the players believe there was interference, it is they who have been driving the rumours as the media speak to people once-removed from the side. Even this week, I had fresh corroboration of the interference from someone, intimately involved in cricket, who had spoken to one of the players of colour in the team.

In order for our national team to bloom as they move forward into fresh challenges, this selection issue needs to be dealt with in a manner that satisfies not just the CSA board, but also the players and the stakeholders of the game – the public.

Personally, I believe the first step in achieving this is for captain AB de Villiers – the only player who really knows what happened in the selection meeting – to speak out and reveal what the truth is from his eyes.

De Villiers will not be the first captain who didn’t get his preferred team – rightly so because selection panels are there to balance out the views of the skipper to avoid the risk of cliques developing in the side – but as South Africa’s finest cricketer, he is in the unique position of being able to speak out because surely not even the CSA board would dare to punish him for honesty?

It would not be the first time there has been interference in selection – the cases of Jacques Rudolph and Charl Langeveldt readily spring to mind – but it would also not be the first time there has been a misunderstanding between the captain and the selectors.

There have also been suggestions that the Proteas are reacting to their own poor performance by making a controversial selection the scapegoat.

Whatever the case, the responsibility now rests on De Villiers, as the leader of the team, to lance South African cricket’s festering boil as soon as possible.

Misbah ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq were fixtures at the crease for the last three-and-a-bit hours as defiant Pakistan ended the third day of the first Test against South Africa on 183 for four at the Wanderers.

The Pakistan captain and his 27-year-old partner had added 101 in 191 minutes for the fifth wicket as the tourists made the South African bowlers work hard. The victory target of 480 is still most probably out of reach and the Proteas will be hoping the second new ball, due in five overs time, will end the resistance.

The South Africans had declared their second innings 45 minutes into the morning on 275 for three, after the dashing AB de Villiers had completed his century, and the attack then chipped away to reduce Pakistan to 104 for four at tea.

But the white-knuckle determination of Misbah and Shafiq put thoughts of another three-day kill to bed as they batted through to stumps to finish on 44 and 53 not out respectively.

The 13 858 people at the Wanderers and the many others on their couches thought South Africa had finally broken through midway through the final session when Shafiq, on 40, edged the fourth ball of Vernon Philander’s fourth spell to Graeme Smith at slip.

But it was quickly revealed via TV replays that Philander had over-stepped and bowled a no-ball, and the batsman was hastily recalled. It’s a problem that has bedevilled South Africa in the recent past and there seems little serious effort to correct it as Philander was regularly over-stepping on Thursday in the nets and bowling coach Allan Donald was nowhere to be seen.

And to make matters worse, just five deliveries later, Misbah, on 31, sent a square-drive off Jacques Kallis to Robin Peterson’s right at backward point and the normally reliable fielder moved to his right but fluffed the regulation catch.

Dale Steyn had spoken the previous day about how the South African team can produce “power performances” at the right time.

“This team can definitely take a game away from anyone and it’s not just the bowlers, the batsmen can do it too, like in Perth and Adelaide. When we put our minds and forces together, we’re pretty hard to beat. It’s a very special team that can produce power performances,” Steyn said after his incredible six for eight in 8.1 overs had put South Africa in a match-winning situation.

But with the ball not swinging, the pitch probably at its best for batting and Pakistan putting in an improved batting display, the South Africans were de-powered on Sunday.

There was an element of risk in their early declaration on Sunday morning as it meant Pakistan would almost certainly win the game if they could bat for long enough. There are now 180 overs left in the match and they need “just” 297 more runs, a required rate of 1.6 per over.

“I was a little bit surprised by the timing of the declaration,” Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore admitted. “But the second new ball will be crucial tomorrow, we’ve got to get over that first and it won’t be easy, even for two set batsmen.”

“It crossed my mind that we should just totally bat them out of the game, but obviously Graeme and Gary [coach Kirsten] thought differently. We like to play a positive brand of cricket and no team has scored more than 400 on this deck. I don’t see Pakistan doing it because the cracks are opening up and we have the second new ball early tomorrow,” De Villiers said.

He and Hashim Amla had resumed on Sunday morning on 207 for three and quickly rattled up 68 more runs in nine overs, with De Villiers driving beautifully down the ground and square on the off-side as he scored 40 runs off 33 balls to go to his 15^th Test century.

Amla also scored at a run-a-ball and finished on 74 not out, his 25^th Test half-century and enough to give South Africa a lead of more than 450 which De Villiers later revealed had been the benchmark figure for Smith and Kirsten.

There is no confidentiality about how South Africa will go about winning this Test on Monday – Steyn and Philander will be given the second new ball as soon as it is due and, with the morning the best time for bowling at the Wanderers, and more cloudy weather expected, they will be roaring in against Misbah and Shafiq.

Having done so well on Sunday afternoon, it remains to be seen whether that pair of Pakistan batsmen can muster the same tenacity and sheer bloody-mindedness.