Bobby Londt
With any project or task, success depends heavily on preparation. The Proteas have done all they could to be as best prepared for the World Cup coming up in Australia come February and the results thus far reflect this.
One could argue that the recent games against the West Indies weren’t a real test, but our boys kept to the extremely high standards they set for themselves. The West Indies Cricket Board is to blame, in my view, as the squad they selected, omitting class players like Pollard and Bravo, obviously caused much unhappiness in the squad, as expressed by Chris Gayle.
For the Proteas, apart from one or two slight injury concerns and perhaps a selection question mark, the whole the side is as settled as could be – the bowling partnerships are working and although death bowling was an issue at one stage, Alan Donald seems to have his ducks in a row in terms of our approach. The brilliance of De Villiers, the rock that is Hash and the power of Miller, along with the rest of the batting line-up, are all in a good space as they have all had decent time in the middle and can approach the tournament with confidence.
The reality, though, is that it is a World Cup, and we have that bogey on our back for not being able to deliver when the pressure is on. Only time will tell, but so far everything seems to be going according to plan.
