Time for new ODI leadership, vision

THE Proteas love to throw the term “brave cricket” around, but there was little or no evidence of it when they lamely exited the Champions Trophy on Sunday.

They were like rabbits caught in the headlights when they were crushed by India at The Oval in London.

This heavy eight-wicket defeat signals yet another dismal failure of the Proteas at a major ICC knockout event. Remarkably, the Proteas have only won one global tournament since their readmission to the international stage.

Since then there has been no success in ICC events and they have been labelled chokers because of their tendencies to freeze on the big stage.

The South Africans had looked timid in their previous game against Pakistan and it was the same story against the Indians.

In both games, Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock made watchful starts and it was painfully obvious that the Proteas were reluctant to take the fight to their opponents.

Despite his batting brilliance, questions are now also being raised about whether AB de Villiers is the right man to lead the team.

De Villiers, the world’s top ranked one-day batsman, scored only 20 runs in his three innings at the tournament.

This latest failure will pose more questions about his leadership capabilities even though he remains adamant that he wants to lead the team at the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales.

Critics say South Africa have a false sense of their own ability because of their dominance when they beat teams in meaningless matches.

In most of these games, the opposition, not afraid to lose, experiment with new players with an eye on developing their best combinations for major tournaments.

There is a lesson to be learnt here for the South Africans as they bid to find their best 11 players to win future knockout tournaments.

Though De Villiers claims to be the man to take South Africa forward to win a World Cup, many will be doubting his assessment. In fact, now seems to be the right time for Faf du Plessis to take over.