OK, let's give this a shot. I'm going to start with the role of club cricket. I read an article by Ashwell Prince stating his view that club cricket is an important step when going from schoolboy cricket to senior cricket. I've often seen junior provincial players go from SA Schools straight into the provincial structure, thereby skipping club cricket altogether. Why do I say club cricket is important? That is where you learn to toughen up because as a 16/17/18/19 year old, you are playing against many hardened cricketers, old pro's and some overseas pro's looking for an off-season gig. I can name drop here, but I think the point is made. So you see these youngsters being wrapped in cotton wool at provincial level and they never really learn to tough it out. The same value is added by going overseas and plying your trade there, you learn a lot about yourself as a cricketer and you learn how to play in foreign conditions. We don't see youngsters going to play a season of club cricket in England anymore, playing 5 days a week against all sorts of opposing sides who themselves have many overseas players. It would be an interesting exercise to list the number of former great SA players who did just that, and compare it with the current crop of players. I stopped playing club cricket when I had some laaitie tell me he won't do this or that, or he wont take his fine for dropping a catch or do scoring or take drinks on the field etc etc. As a 17yo laaitie I would NEVER dream to say that to the manne I played with, NEVER. You did as you were told. And then when a game finishes early, you have to be somewhere because blah blah blah: the game finished at 3, it was supposed to finish at 18:30 if it went all the way, but you all of a sudden have to be somewhere? Show some commitment to your team ffs. One of the best sides I played in, all 11 of us were like brothers, and it showed on the field, we had 2 dream seasons where we didn't lose much! This brings me to the performances on the field we have been seeing the last while: there's no toughness about some of our players. Linde bust his finger and came out saying he will suck it up because he's playing for his country, and he fared relatively well in the second test. But where was the fight in the other players when we squandered good starts in the first innings' of both tests and we got rolled out cheaply; playing on the subcontinent you HAVE to have a good first innings score on the board otherwise you are playing catchup cricket all the time. We are also not reading the game situations and playing accordingly. How we continue to struggle in getting the tail out is a lack of tactics. You set a field and bowl to it. This is test cricket, if you stop the runs flowing, wickets will come. You cannot contain batsmen with short-pitched bowling. You ring the field and bowl a 4th stump line. I've seen MANY guys at club level do just that, and consequently win matches for their teams by doing this, and you don't have to be express pace to achieve this. Look at VDP. And this is what Hassan Ali did in this last game. Mike Haysman put up a stat during the the 5th days play showing in the last 2 years we lost our last 5 wickets for less than 50 runs on TEN occasions. That is preposterous! If we keep on collapsing like that, it HAS to be addressed by either selecting guys who are willing to knuckle down or by drilling it into our lower order. The tail is important, and even more so in our current side where we are not performing in the top order. Which brings me to the top order. We must get new blood in there. And QdK MUST bat at 6. One of my mates commented today that the Pakistanis bowled well with the second new ball. I struggle to agree with that. Markram played a loose shot, so did QdK, Kesh and Linde. When the new ball is taken, you consolidate and see off the shine. Not get bowled out between overs 80 and 90 by playing attacking cricket and losing 7 wickets for a handful of runs. We know that if you give the Pakistanis a sniff, they will be all over us like white on rice. And that's what happened. We needed to see off those 10 overs with at most losing 1 wicket. Markram for all his talent keeps getting himself out. When he cover drives he reminds of King Kallis, but he has to learn to READ THE GAME and play accordingly. Temba must step up to the plate, you cannot play as a specialist batsman and bat at 6. They finally moved him up to 5 where he should be, and honestly, he has some talent, but if he keeps making 50's he will not be a great player for us - yes he needs to have support at the other end, I know, but at number 5 you need to assert yourself on the game when needed, but also you need to bat with the lower order, that is what a number 5 has to do. Rassie has something about him that I like, he looks like a test cricketer. He played many years of first class cricket, he knows his game. Batting at 3 in test cricket is tough. But I'm sure we will get many a good contribution from him if we stick with him. Faf must go. He is not contributing in the batting stakes and it doesn't seem as if he is adding value otherwise. Then the captaincy. QdK is not a captain. Its another classic example of making your best player captain and then he starts failing. He was reluctant from the start, and as Darryl Cullinan said, if that was the case, make Markram captain and give him a fresh young side and send them off to grow as a team. Haysie and DJ still rate Markram as our next captain. For me, he doesn't show a clear understanding of the game situation (as eluded to earlier). What's more, if he WANTED to be captain, come out and say it, own it, want it, show it, dont play it down. Biff had a clear plan when he came into international cricket and he wasn't shy about it, he owned it, and look what he achieved! There is a story of him sticking a piece of paper on his fridge when he was a laaitie, with the list of things he wanted to achieve in cricket, and being captain of the Proteas was right at the top of that list. If the QdK captaincy was always going to be a stop-gap appointment, they could just as well have gone with Elgar and not burden Quinny with it. Now look, our best bastman is down on confidence and looking like a dear staring into headlights. Elgar has done it before, he is experienced and he is guaranteed his place in the side pretty much every day of the week. Who else other than Markram is really a potential captain? I don't know. No-one springs to mind. Again, I like Rassie, he looks like he will add great value. Im not sure what his credentials are in terms of captaining a side, but he looks like the kind of guy that will run through walls for his team, and for me that makes him captain's material. That's it, over bowled and stumps!
