Ken Borland

Proteas captain Temba Bavuma did not explicitly say it was another case of South Africa choking at a cricket world cup after their shock loss to the Netherlands saw them eliminated from the T20 showpiece on Sunday, but he did admit that notorious tag would now be hung around their necks, like so many of their predecessors.

Needing to just beat qualifiers the Netherlands to make the semi-finals, the Proteas instead came out flat and uninspired, allowing the Dutch to post a challenging 158/4, and then batting limply to only manage 145/8 in reply.

“That tag will always be there until we get to a final and come out on the right side of it,” Bavuma said in the aftermath. “We have nothing else to blame, everything was in our own hands.

“We had the confidence, the belief and the form behind us, but when it mattered we just couldn’t do the business. There needs to be an element of learning to make sure young guys like Tristan Stubbs and Marco Jansen don’t make the same mistakes in future.

“But we are still going to carry that monkey on our backs, that tag. We knew we had to win the game, but I didn’t feel any different type of pressure personally.

“It’s very hard to say it was different because we knew we had to beat India and we won that game. We had the opportunity to make the semi-finals and we just did not take it,” Bavuma said.

Of his own future in the shortest format, Bavuma said he will park any decision on the captaincy until a new fulltime coach is appointed. The skipper admitted that all the speculation over his own poor batting form had also been unsettling.

“It’s been a tricky time and to consider the captaincy now, a lot of my thinking would be emotional. I probably will think about it and speak to the relevant people.

“We have to see who comes in as coach, generally the new person coming in might want a different leader to execute their vision. But I think I carried myself with dignity through the good and bad times.

“Mentally all the talk does affect you. You try to manage your mental space as much as you can, unfortunately social media and whatever is said about you, always seems to get to you no matter how you try to control it.

“I’ve tried to keep a level head through the good and bad times and stay as close to myself as possible. Not just for myself but for the group, who will now take a lot of flak, and rightfully so,” Bavuma said.

South African golfers who participate in the ‘rebel’ Saudi Arabian league will still be welcome to play on the Sunshine Tour, as things stand at the moment, but come the showpiece Nedbank Golf Challenge at the end of the year, they could find themselves out in the cold.

LIV Golf, with Greg Norman as chief executive, promises guaranteed lucrative paydays for their competitors, with the winner of each tournament taking home £2.8 million and last place being worth £97 000. The eight-event series starts at Centurion Golf Club in southern England next month. But much of the controversy surrounding the league revolves around the fact it is funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

South Africans Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace have all been linked with LIV Golf, while the PGA Tour in the United States and the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) have both threatened life bans for anyone who plays in the breakaway series.

Sunshine Tour commissioner Thomas Abt told The Citizen on Thursday that while they have their own regulations, they would respect the DP World Tour’s decision when it comes to their tournaments.

He said discussions will still have to be held when it comes to the five co-sanctioned tournaments with them like the SA Open. But the Nedbank Golf Challenge, which returns to Sun City in November after a two-year absence due to Covid, is entirely a DP World Tour event, so Sunshine Tour rules do not apply.

“We have agreed a strategic alliance with the DP World Tour, but they must do whatever they see fit in their tournaments,” Abt said.

“But our Sunshine Tour regulations state that a golfer must ask for a release only if there is a conflicting event in the same territory of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, at the same time.

“So we don’t have any rules to stop our members playing in events overseas, but the Nedbank Golf Challenge is wholly a DP World Tour event,” Abt explained.

The Sunshine Tour itself is in boisterous health with Abt announcing a new points-based order of merit, sponsored by Luno, on Thursday, as well as 35 tournaments next season, the most ever.

“Because there are such big discrepancies in prize funds between tournaments, we have introduced a tier-system for points to give the guys who support our tour through the year a genuine chance of winning the order of merit,” Abt said.

“The bigger events will be worth 12 000 points, but there are lots more tournaments worth 2000 points, so that those golfers who really support the Sunshine Tour can compete for top place.”

The winner of the 2022/23 order of merit will not only gain entry into the U.S. and British Opens and the Nedbank Golf Challenge, but have the use of a Jaguar/Land Rover for a year and win R500 000 of bitcoin from Luno.

Following a better-than-expected performance at this year’s T20 World Cup, Proteas coach Mark Boucher knows that building towards the next showpiece event in the shortest format of the game, which will be in Australia in less than a year’s time, will require just a few tweaks to his team.

This year the Proteas have shown the benefit of consistency in selection, becoming a settled squad and putting in ever-improving performances as their confidence has grown. It is therefore obvious that the majority of the players who narrowly missed out on the semi-finals in the UAE, will be back for another go in Australia next October.

“In terms of personnel, it will be different conditions so we will have to look at the make-up of our squad,” Boucher said on Tuesday. “This World Cup was played on the subcontinent and we went with two outright seamers and two spinners.

“But maybe in Australia we will need an extra seamer because that might be what’s important for those conditions. But we have the personnel to match the conditions, although hopefully one or two guys come through the domestic system and put some pressure on for places.

“The challenge for the guys is to think differently and be smart. We found ways to win in those conditions in the UAE and now we need to make the mental shift for Australia.

“We’ve upskilled these players, but the doors are not closed for anyone. Even the former Kolpak guys, if they do really well in our system,” Boucher said.

The Proteas’ next assignment is a three-match ODI series against the Netherlands in Gauteng from November 26, but Boucher admitted they had half-an-eye on the massive Test series against a top-class India team that follows.

“The focus has shifted now to the Netherlands and obviously a series we have to win to automatically qualify for the World Cup. But we’re going to try and fit in some rest and recovery for the Test guys.

“It’s a very important Test series against India, playing them at home, up against one of the world’s best sides, while we are still very much growing, still finding our feet in certain positions.

“We did really well in the West Indies and it’s going to be nice playing back in our own conditions, but we’re up against a top-quality team.

“It’s an opportunity for us to do something special, but if we don’t beat India then we must make sure we learn from it and come out a better side,” Boucher said.

South Africa and Australia have always been great World Cup rivals but they meet for just the second time in the T20 showpiece on Saturday in what has been a massively contrasting year for the two teams.

While the Proteas have won nine of their last 10 matches and were impressive in winning their warm-up games against Afghanistan and Pakistan, Australia have lost eight of their previous 10 games and are on a losing streak in their last four series. Their warm-up displays were also mixed, with a narrow win over New Zealand followed by a thrashing at the hands of India.

But Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said on Friday that he expects the toughest of tests for his side in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

“Australia are a very competitive side and I’m sure they won’t be deterred by their past results,” Bavuma said. “They will take learnings from them and they have good resources in terms of players.

“Obviously their bowling is strong and they’ll look to strike up front and get into our middle-order. We’ll have to play the powerplay well and not allow their slow bowlers into our middle-order.

“Their batting is quite top-heavy with Warner, Finch and Smith. So we’ll want to put their middle-order under pressure and the earlier we get them in, the more we can do that.

“But both teams are under pressure. We have come under heavy attack from our fans and media the last while and we understand how unforgiving the demand for excellence is from us,” Bavuma said.

While South Africa have clearly thrown off their old reliance on pace bowlers, Bavuma said they were still deciding whether to play all three frontline spinners in Tabraiz Shamsi, Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin, or just two.

Against a strong bowling side like Australia and pacemen who have terrorised the Proteas before in Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, it would be risky to go in with just six batsmen.

“We are considering both options of going in with three spinners or a longer batting line-up,” Bavuma confirmed. “If we do go the slower bowlers route then we do have the guys at our disposal, and the same if we go the extra batsman route.”

Australia are the old foe and they walloped the Proteas by eight wickets with 14 balls to spare in their previous T20 World Cup meeting, in 2012 in Colombo. They also won their last series, triumphing 2-1 in 2020 in South Africa as they twice bowled them out for less than a hundred.

“There’s no bigger motivation than playing against Australia, games against them are always full of fire and we don’t expect anything less this time,” Bavuma said.

“It’s obviously a big game and we want to start well, get some momentum going. It’s always important to throw the first punch early on and then ride that momentum.

“There isn’t really time in this tournament to be behind the eight-ball, so we really want to hit the ground running and play our best cricket tomorrow [Saturday].”