Senior players must take responsibility for World Cup fiasco – Duminy

Veteran batsman JP Duminy said on Thursday that while he cannot pinpoint any exact reason for the Proteas’ World Cup failure, the one thing he is sure of is that the players, especially the senior ones, need to take responsibility for it.

The fallout from South Africa’s least successful World Cup campaign ever has unsurprisingly been fierce and Duminy said he had heard the call from back home for “heads to roll”. The 35-year-old, who is retiring from ODI cricket after the tournament, said the players themselves should be accountable.

“It’s been a combination of a few things but if you look at the amount of work the management have put in after the last two years, then it’s a difficult thing for them to bear the brunt for our performances. We as players need to stand up and take responsibility, we are the ones who came up short and it’s important for us to be accountable. It always comes back to you are accountable for your own games.

“I’ve heard the reports that heads will roll, but that’s a CSA decision that is out of our hands. The reality is though that there probably will be some shifting. There are a lot of mature guys in this squad, some of us have played two or three World Cups and unfortunately we don’t have answers, which is a bitter pill to swallow. A time of self-reflection is the most important thing,” Duminy said at the Riverside Stadium on Thursday, on the eve of South Africa’s penultimate game, against Sri Lanka.

Duminy also made a point of making a heartfelt apology to South African fans for their World Cup failure, winning just one match out of the seven they have played thus far.

“The most important thing to point out is how disappointed we are that our performances have been pretty dismal and we’ve let down all the fans back home. Even though there’s been a lot of effort and preparation, and we tried our best to go out with a strong mindset, we just haven’t executed our skills. So we apologise to South African fans for letting them down.

“We understand that we represent 50-60 million people and after performances like that, you almost feel ashamed. But all is not lost, I believe this team can come back stronger after a period of introspection about what went wrong. It’s going to be different for the guys who carry on playing, they have to pick up the pieces, but what makes South Africa strong is that we are always resilient,” Duminy said.

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