#365DaysOfWriting – Day Thirty

What has happened to the Proteas?

For the uninitiated, the Proteas is a sobriquet for the South African cricket team. Yes, I’m going to talk about them on my thirtieth writing day. Don’t worry, I won’t make it too long. I’m writing this as I see them playing the Aussies in an ODI tri-series also involving West Indies. South Africa succumbed to the off-spinning genius of Sunil Narine in the first game against the West Indies, and they desperately need to win this to keep their hopes alive of winning the series.

It wasn’t always like this though.

Let’s see now – last year, before they landed in India, there was an aura of invincibility about them (let’s not talk about their record at ICC events for now). South Africa had an enviable test away record, and in bilateral/tri-series they always emerged victorious.

Even after they landed in India, they won the T20s 2–0, and emphatically sealed a see-saw ODI series 3–2 with a 200+ runs victory in the final match.

Then came the test matches.

India tailor-made pitches for the spinners, and suddenly the aura of invincibility was crushed. They won test matches and series in India before. But here, they were brushed aside 3–0 in a 4-test series. They were lucky that one of the tests (in Bangalore) was rained off. And ever since, they’ve looked… a lot less intimidating.

The ICC WT20 in India was another exhibition of Protea Cold Feet (ironic, considering their campaign was all about #ProteaFire). They lost 2 matches they should’ve won, and that was that.

I see a few reasons why this has happened.

1. The Steyn gun has been misfiring due to injuries. He’s sat out most of the matches since the India series. With Dale Steyn as the leader of the attack, they never really needed a spinner, which brings me to point 2…
2. South Africa have never had a world-class spinner. To find one, you’d have to go all the way back to 1949, when Hugh ‘Toey’ Tayfield ripped out batting line ups for fun. And because of this…
3. Their batsmen are more often than not ill-equipped to handle world-class spin. Even with the likes of Amla and AB De Villiers, who are good players of spin, the others just don’t rally around them.

These are just a few reasons. I’m sure there are far more. I’ll discuss that on another day. For now, I’ll bid you good night. If you like what you read, tap the little green heart at the bottom!