THIS AND THAT michelle cahill It’s time to rein in the boy child before it’s too late

IT HAS BEEN a long time since we have had the wealth of talent we currently have in our Protea side. The youth are coming to the fore and showing up the old men who are long past their sell-by date.

However, no matter how talented, we can not have a renegade running wild. Even though he is 22, his actions are those of a boy child. He is not only ruining himself, but the team too.

If Kagisho Rabada wants to act like a little child he needs to be treated like a little child.

No matter how much talent you have, if you remain arrogant … you become an ass***e.

It just seems to me that there is no emotional support in the Proteas side. If you are deemed good enough by the selectors, you are chucked out into the middle of the field and expected to perform.

To me it just seems that they are taken into a little room prior to the match and the batsmen are told this bowler bowls like this, that one you can take advantage of … and for the bowlers – that is that batsman’s weak point, target that area.

They are not told that this team – in this case the Australians – enjoy playing mind games. I have to say, the Australians are masters at that game. If there was a World Championship tournament for this, the Aussies would remain unbeaten. Then, in order to earn some extra money, they can consult on the side.

So instead of forfeiting his match fees for the next two Tests, the boy child Kagisho could have rather paid for mind game advice, and he wouldn’t be in the situation that he is in currently.

The Australians have this thing down to a fine art. They target the strongest players in the team and work on that person’s psyche till they get the desired result.

It the boy child had had some pre-emotional support, he might not have cracked like he did. So, even if we win the remaining matches, we will still have lost to the Aussies’ mind games.

The Aussies have mastered their dirty tricks and honed their mind games over the years, especially in the annual rivalry with the Poms. Then it seems they take the show on the road and implement it on most of their rivals.

In one way you have to feel for Rabada. But he needs to get the support he deserves from the structures.

In a press conference after the Port Elizabeth Test, he said: “I can’t keep doing this because I am letting the team down and I am letting myself down. I would have loved to play in the next game.”

However, he is steadfast in his belief that he was not trying to shoulder-charge the Australian skipper.

“I won’t change the way I express myself, I will just stay as far away from the batter as possible,” Rabada stressed.

“There’s a lot of grey areas as well, but the rules are the rules. The reason why we went to a hearing was because we believe that there’s not a lot of consistency. If I knew I had done it deliberately, then I would not have gone to contest.

“But honestly I never even felt contact in that moment, because I was so pumped up. I never felt contact at all. It’s the same as at Lord’s with the (Ben) Stokes incident. I never tried to appeal that one because I knew that I did it.

“It’s going to need to stop, because I’m letting the team down. I’m also letting myself down.”

Rabada needs to learn his lesson and fast too and Cricket SA and the Department of Sport needs to step in and teach our young talent how to control themselves so that we can once more become the top cricket nation.