Embattled Proteas have been ‘hampered’ in England

A Proteas team housing enough world-class talent to make an impact at the World Cup failed to produce their best when it really mattered, because they were “hampered”, coach Ottis Gibson said after their defeat to New Zealand in Birmingham.

Before the tournament started, South Africa had three batsmen in the top-20 of the ODI rankings and four bowlers in their top-20, so they were not lacking for quality cricketers.

And yet, six matches into the World Cup, lowly Afghanistan have been the only team they have managed to beat, and they have all but joined the minnows in being out of semi-final contention with 15 days of group stage play still remaining.

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“It’s very disappointing of course and we did not do what we left South Africa to do. It’s still quite raw, but for whatever reason, the players have somehow been hampered and not able to put their best forward on the grandest stage. I will have to think carefully about why that is before making any statement, but it is surprising because we’ve seen in series past that they are very good cricketers.

“We’ve spoken for a long time about being positive and aggressive, taking the game forward, but they have not been able to do that when it mattered most and to see them go into their shell has been surprising. They have not been able to reach those same heights and I need to think about why. There are a lot of things we could have done better, but ultimately it came down to not having enough runs on the board,” Gibson said at Edgbaston when asked whether mental fragility had yet again sunk the Proteas.

Even though Cricket South Africa have repeatedly stated that a World Cup failure would lead to Gibson being shown the door, the former West Indies head coach and England assistant said he will not be on his way just yet, pointing out that his contact runs up to September. In the immediate future, he has to find a way of getting a demoralised team through their remaining three games at the World Cup without embarrassing themselves even further.

“I haven’t decided on my future just yet, my contract runs to September and we have more games to play first. Hopefully we will play the way we know we can because we haven’t done that yet. I like to think the guys leaving the world stage would like to sign off on a strong note and there are youngsters who will be going to future World Cups so I would think they also want to make a statement.

“Your experienced players are the ones that win you World Cups, in all the teams that have won the World Cup, they are the ones that have stood up. Ours have not done that yet. You look at Kane Williamson, he is a class player and he scored a matchwinning hundred, countering everything we threw at him. Scoring thirties and the odd fifty are not going to win you the World Cup,” Gibson said.

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