A 35 year old man wins Wimbledon...

Test batting rankings - De Kock - 6 (No 1 - Steve Smith 28 yrs) ODI batting rankings - De Kock - 7 (No 1 - Virat Kholi 28 yrs) T20 - De Kock - 30 (No 1 - Virat Kholi - 28 yrs)

de Kock like Rabada is shooting up the rankings......are you saying Smith is old aged 28?  

By my standards Smith is a youngster. By your standards he is rapidly approaching geriatric status.

Stop speaking shit Vlag  

Look Saff, on a more serious note, I have never doubted De Kock as a potentially great batsman. I just did not think that he was that great a few years back. I have always and will probably always believe that promising youngsters should not be pushed too far too soon. There are just too many youngsters who were going to set the world alight and then crashed. Pat Lambie is one of them. Forget about the argument that he wasn't getting exposure. That fact that he was never going to be great was clear from an early stage. Johan Goosen will be forgotten very soon. Lood de Jager will probably never be an all time great. How many years did it take for PSDT to become a fairly obvious first choice Bok? Definitely not immediately after he caught the eye at the JRWC. He was definitely one who was pushed too far too soon. Pollard as well. Arno Botha as well. Even Jan Serfontein was pushed too soon. And Serfontein and Pollard were HM's balls ups, just to show that I did not support everything that he did.

Lomp, Allende and especially Kriel were HM's biggest balls ups.

Ben Smith 31.0 Israel Dagg 29.0 Crotty 28.8 Sonny Bill 31.9 Ioane 20.2 Barrett 26.2 Aaron Smith 28.6 Joe Moody 28.8 Codie Tailor 26.3 Owen Franks 29.6 Retallick 26.2 Whitelock 28.6 Kaino 34.3 Cane 25.5 Read 31.7 ....... There we have the first test All Blacks...the preferred team before injuries. The best team in World Rugby. There is one player below 25....4 players over 30....oldest player 34....average age 28.4 This is no surprise, it's consistent through World Cup after World Cup.

Thanks Cloudy, it should end the argument, but I wouldn't bet on it.

https://www.diamondleague.com/fileadmin/IDL_Default/files/documents/2017/Rabat/Results.pdf
Moz, have a look at the latest Diomond League results. I think it is a fair cross section of old vs young in different disciplines. Okay, so maybe 10-1 is a bit of an exaggeration, but I think the results paint a pretty clear picture. 
Also, you can't take my 10 spring chickens statement literally, obviously I was just referring to a general trend. Its not like I actually went and checked the winners of every sporting event anywhere in the world and compiled that figure. Ronaldo, Federer, Messi and any others you are trying to use to prove your point are not helping your argument, because they were all world beaters when they were spring chickens as well. 

My argument is not that your team has to be only thirty year olds.....I would select Itoje for the Boks in a heartbeat. My point is great players continue their form into their thirties and like Ronaldo become even more valuable because they develop smarts. That example is replicated in sport after sport.

 The question is that players should be selected based on performance - not age and reputation.   The players you said carried their form into the thirties in the main failed when the chips were down - so stick to performance as a criterium for team selection.   Age has nothing to do with it.   

I see 23 year old Jordan Spieth has just posted a 65 at Royal Birkdale to take the lead in the Open Championship.

Of course, Spieth will have to have a sensational year if he is to match his achievements as a 20 year old in 2015 when he won two of the Majors and finished 4th and 2nd in the other two!

20 years old! Wow!

 I missed that one of Mozart
Meyer's biggest balls-ups were -
Matfield, Alberts, Jannie du Plessis, Pienaar, De Villiers (after his injury), Alberts, Krchner, Morne Steyn and Adriaan Strauss
Most of the above lot were involved in the Japan fiasco and dropped to the bench after the game.  
Learn one thing - reputation selections are BS and that was shown up by the above.   

Damn there goes Spieth's chances, nice kid. I followed him for some holes at the BMW at Conway Farms.