By Zaahier Adams
Three years ago the Proteas brainstrust adopted a strategy labelled "brave cricket". Many pundits were confused by the term. Pages of copy were written about it and various former players and administrators were consulted to make sense of the strategy.
The only people who understood what it really meant was Proteas coach Mickey Arthur, captain Graeme Smith and the players. But maybe that's how it was meant to be and should be.
One way Arthur did try and explain his philosophy to the media back in 2006 was: "(Our defensive nature) is something we are looking to change. We want to be braver. We really do. And we're in the process of doing that. Hopefully you'll see a new brand of cricket, we really want to make it an entertaining brand."
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Arthur also said the team would along the way scale spectacular highs (the 438 win over Australia) and some disappointing lows (being bowled out for just 149 in the 2007 World Cup semi-final defeat to the Aussies).
One thing we can deduce from this is that at least Arthur is a man of his word. What troubles me, however, is that the one-day squad recently selected for the Kenya and Bangladesh series has no traits of the "brave cricket" philosophy. I have always believed that to play "brave cricket", you need to select bravely.
And while two weeks is a long time in international cricket, let alone three years, and that the playing personnel at Arthur's disposal has changed, which has possibly led to a change in strategy, surely elements of "brave cricket" should remain.
Dropping Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel was not brave. Both pacemen are over 30 years of age, and have been struggling in limited-overs cricket for a while. Nel has conceded 352 runs in his last 10 one-dayers, with an economy rate of 4.88. That is very acceptable in modern-day ODI cricket, you might argue.
Remove the two matches against Bangladesh in this period and it jumps to 5.77. He has also taken 12 wickets, with seven of the 12 in the two ODIs against the Tigers. Ntini's figures do not read much better, unfortunately.
India showed the cricketing world what "brave cricket" really is. And it all started with their selection. They chose to rest their "fab four" (Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman) for the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa last year, handed the reigns to a new skipper, and returned to the sub-continent with the trophy.
The majority of this team was sent to Australia at the end of the year for the one-day series and again they were successful.
They now stand on the threshold of being able to revamp their ageing Test team without any major disruptions because the young men have been exposed to international cricket - and by that I mean being given the opportunity to play.
South Africa's Test team is fortunately in good health and are currently being led by the most experienced skipper in international cricket at present. The Proteas are also fortunate that Smith has the ability to lead the team in all three formats of the game.
Stalwarts such as Jacques Kallis also still hopefully have long international careers ahead of them. But what the retirement of Shaun Pollock has shown us is that a succession selection plan is crucial to long-term success. And here I'm not talking about a group of six players called up to train with the team.
When Virender Sehwag was ruled of the India-Sri Lanka ODI series mid-year, the Indian selectors called upon young Virat Kohli to open the innings. The 19-year-old responded by scoring the second most amount of runs by an Indian player in the series. And those who follow age-group cricket, will remember that Kohli was South African under-19 skipper Wayne Parnell's adversary in the ICC under-19 World Cup final last year.
The Proteas brainstrust may long have consigned the term "brave cricket" to the scrap heap, but hopefully the ideology will remain when the selectors announce their next one-day squad.
My Cricketer of the Week
The maiden winner of this prestigious title is Dolphins opener Imraan Khan for his two centuries in as many innings against the Lions. What makes this achievement even more remarkable was that it was the first time a KZN player achieved this feat in an "A" section match. Well done Imraan!
- This article was originally published on page 13 of Cape Times on October 15, 2008
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