Proteas biggest problem . . .

The Proteas lack depth in bowling, our fielding is amateurish at best and our batsmen are either low on confidence or just not good enough . . . but the biggest problem the Proteas have is a weak captain. Faf hasn't been our worst batsman by any stretch but his decisions have been poor, his leadership is non-existent and his body language and general attitude is that of a loser.

This is what Faf said before the loss to India:

"For myself, it's really important to stay strong. My position that I'm in is I'm the captain of the team right now and players are looking for someone to lead them. So all I can do is try my absolute best to try and do that."

So how does our courageous captain set an example of leadership and try his "absolute best" to lead the team? He runs back to the hotel and leaves Chris Morris to do the post match press conference.

Pathetic.

If Faf hasn't got the guts to front up at a post match press conference how on earth can he inspire the players to perform better?

I wouldn't drop Faf because he's still one of our more reliable batsman (which isn't saying much) but I'd be thinking about giving the captaincy to someone else right now. Not sure who but at the very least someone who'll stand up and take it on the chin instead of running away.

A far cry from our best ever skipper - G. Smith from Kes.

Markram is our next skipper I think Rooi.

Did they win us test series in OZ and ENG though Rooi? 

Remember that first test win in OZ? Some of their all time greats were still playing. Not McGrath though, he did his ankle on a soccer ball in training hahahaha

Sure maybe they(Hansie & Rice) won a few bar room brawls(ODIs) but it was general Smith that carpet bombed them in the great war(Test Cricket).

Side note: 

I lived in Bloem while Hansie was skipper.  

My girlfriend's mom at the time was a physio and Hansie's wife and her moved in similar circles in the area. 

She told us, long before the corruption saga came along, that Hansie's wife was a money grabber and high society wannabe. 

Not shifting blame but it would not surprise me if part of his crimes was down to trying to live up to expectation.

Side story: A mate(Donald's Englishman she brother in law) and I looked after Donald's house a few times when he was away too. He lived across from a school called Brebner in the north of Bloem. The school had cement pitches but Donald would solo practice there quite often. I got paid in signed game shirts for my share of house watching. I sold them. #studentlife

Haha

You know what I meant.

How's this...

My girlfriend at the time's mum ;)

How can Smih be regarded as the best captain ever - after the 2011 WC - where he failed badly he would not return with the team to face the music. 

No the team selection caused the problem.    How can you select a player who las t played in January when he failed 60% of the time in bating and select another one who has not played a decent game this year,  

And then we have a player tot he WC who played one game in IPL - his only game since January and who was never going to get over his injury problem.

I am sorry - but the whole balls-up started even before the team left SA and that is a major problem for the Proteas.     

After losing all three of their opening matches, the Proteas are now faced with a very difficult decision . . .

. . . window seats or aisle seats?

The quality of players is not there. Blaming Faf ignores this obvious fact. 

Mike you had it spot-on even before the team left the country.

"I am sorry - but the whole balls-up started even before the team left SA and that is a major problem for the Proteas."     

As I've repeatedly said, it's the worst team ever to represent  South Africa at the CWC. 

Makes me wonder why anyone expected better.

There's two answers to your question......saying it was the worst Protea team to represent SA at the CWC does not necessarily mean there were better to select from. The second answer relates to better selections.....for starters why did they select 3 allrounders? The experiment turned out to be a disaster. A club grade spinner when there is better around? For those reasons Pretorius is a no-no and is replaced by the best young ODI specialist batsman and Maharaj instead of Shamsi.

Shamsi and Pretorius were never going to buy a wicket. Also I would have had Philander as part of the squad instead of Duminy.

The writing was on the wall as early as when they lost the 5 game home ODI series against India. They also hung with Reeza Hendricks for far too long and then they tested insults like Junior Dala and a few others. The doubts about Amla carried on for too long and in the end I think he was picked more for the colour of his skin. They knew all along that batting was a problem but they never addressed the problem. They also failed to give Bavuma a proper chance in the ODI home series.

Maharaj is better than the useless Shamsi and a fit Philander is better than the useless Hendricks who is substituting Dale Steyn. Point is whether these guys would have proven themselves better is neither here nor there but at least on paper they are better which wouldn't be all that hard. Perhaps the best team was chosen, saying the selectors couldn't have done any better, it is still the worst team to represent at the CWC. The quality of our cricket has definitely evaporated at a world class level.

"I have tickets for the NZ game - I am hardly excited about attending!!"

I'll have em....oh wait on, rain has been predicted. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.