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It’s not easy being a Proteas supporter
The Proteas have match-winners aplenty, and have dominated bilateral series for years, so why can’t they make the big games at World Cups count?
Dejected captain Aiden Markram after the Proteas lost to India in the T20 World Cup final in Barbados on Saturday. Picture: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
Supporting the Proteas cricket team has never been easy. I doubt this will ever change. Backing the boys in green is a lifelong commitment.
In the good times, they pick you up from the lows we face daily in our lives in this country. In the great times, they make you believe anything is possible. In the bad times, they make you question why you let them break your heart time and time again.
I remember sneaking into the TV room at boarding school as a 13 year old with a handful of “rebels” to watch Allan Donald bowl the first ball of the 1992 World Cup. How “that edge” was not given out is still incomprehensible.
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I remember how my brother and late dad rushed back from holiday so we could see Fanie de Villiers finish off a demolition job against Australia Down Under in a low-scoring Test in Sydney in 1994, after listening to most of the day’s play on the radio in the car.
I will never forget the “438 game”, even though it forced many rewrites. Nor will I forget how David Miller took time to give my son his cap after a T20 international win, when most of his team-mates had already boarded the bus for the hotel. It’s what the Proteas team does.
When they are good, they are great. When they are brilliant, they are magnificent, and when they have a bad day – especially in big tournaments – it feels like a death in the family.
There are countless other memories… Makhaya Ntini kissing the ground at Lord’s, Hashim Amla’s triple century at The Oval or AB de Villiers smashing the ball to all parts of the ground against the West Indies in the pink one-day international.
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It’s why South African fans are so desperate for them to lift a big trophy. They have match-winners aplenty, they have dominated bilateral series in all formats for years, so why can’t they make the big games at World Cups count?
On Saturday, against India at the Kensington Oval in the T20 World Cup final, it looked as though it would all change. Having won all their games up to that point without actually producing a 100% performance, it looked as though this would be their moment.
Having fought back in the contest and needing 30 runs off the final 30 balls with wickets in hand, we started to believe.
Somehow, it wasn’t meant to be, and the Proteas fell agonisingly short. Have I said it’s not easy supporting the Proteas?
