When I heard about Moeneeb Josephs’ teary-eyed sessions with Benni McCarthy this week, my thoughts turned to JP Duminy and the lengthy wait he endured before breaking into the national cricket side.
Apparently Josephs no longer wants to play for the national football team because he refuses to play second fiddle to Itumeleng Khune as he feels he’s worked hard enough and deserves to be South Africa’s “No1”. How lame.
Khune and Josephs to me are ’keepers of similar ilk. Both are athletic, both are erratic, but where Khune stands out – over every ’keeper in the country – is his accurate distribution.
But that’s beside the point. Obtaining a national cap should be hard – bloody hard in fact. Crying because you can’t get a spot for South Africa seems a bit soft to me.
Duminy made his one-day international debut in 2004, but didn’t become a regular in that one-day side for three years. Duminy is one of the most precocious batting talents in the world, nevermind just South Africa, but he bided his time – he had to – before exploding onto the world scene on that magical tour of Australia in 2008/09.
Everyone knew what a talent he was, including teammates who watched him in the nets. His ability pushed them to become better and that is the point Josephs is missing.
He and Khune are the two best goalkeepers in South Africa. Josephs’ presence would have pushed Khune to do better and that would have helped the national team.
With due respect to the back up Pitso Mosimane has called in now following Josephs’ decision, if something happens to Khune in the next few days leading up to those World Cup qualifiers, it is the South African team that will suffer, because the next best isn’t available anymore.
Josephs must realise that playing for the country is a privilege, no one deserves to be there. He would do well to pick up the phone to Duminy and ask him how, despite everyone saying he was “the next big thing”, he had to be patient and bide his time, how he used that to become a better player, to become stronger mentally and be ready when his time came.
There’s no point crying about your missed opportunities, unless you’re close to your ultimate goal or they’re tears of joy upon achieving the ultimate goal.
Crying because you don’t get a chance wins you no friends. Harden up Moeneeb, get back to the grindstone, make more sacrifices and save the tears for something other than Benni’s shoulder. – The Star