Time to reflect
10 July 2009
It is good to be a South African in the UK when we managed to beat the British and Irish Lions at home. Since the season started here in the UK there has been a lot of banter on who was going to win the rugby test series. I was so confident in John Smit and the boys that I bet our physio at Leicester 5 pounds that we will go 2-0 up with one test still to be played. The drinks I bought with the money went down very well indeed.
The ICC T20 World Cup in the UK was a huge success. HD Ackerman and I went down to Trent Bridge to watch Greame and the boys give England a huge hiding. It was incredible to see how well organized the Protea team looked. They looked a world apart from the English. Unfortunately the Proteas lost to Pakistan in the semifinal. The Pakistan team is a team with a lot of flair and it was not the first time that they just played better and better as the tournament went on. In the 1992 World Cup they also came from nowhere to win.
One needs to ask the question as to what we can learn from watching the Proteas play so well and then to lose when it really mattered. Why do I say that? Purely because we the professional cricketers and the whole of South Africa want to see the Proteas win major tournaments. I certainly don't have the answers, but the off season gives us the time to reflect on what we have learned from watching others and from our own mistakes. By doing just that we can help the Proteas become the best cricket team in the world!