ICC semi-final defeats will continue until Proteas coach Rob Walter starts making the hard calls

Comment by Zaahier Adams

The Proteas’ exit at the ICC Champions Trophy on Wednesday night was rather limp. 

There was no drama. No individual errors. Not even a choke. 

It was just a plain old-fashioned hiding handed out by the Black Caps. The Kiwis were superior in every department that mattered. 

Their big players stepped up. And youngsters weren’t daunted by the occasion. Not to mention their skipper Mitchell Santner playing a hugely influential role in the outcome.

So, do we just accept Proteas coach Rob Walter’s anecdote that it was just "a bad day to have a bad day?”

Does one defeat make this group suddenly a bad group of players? Does the baby need to be thrown out with the bath water? 

I feel these are simplistic questions that won’t get to the root cause of the Proteas’ inability to produce their best efforts when the lights are at its brightest.

In my humble opinion, with the resources at their disposal, the Proteas had enjoyed a solid campaign, beating a very good Afghanistan side and disposing of a mentally-sapped England team. 

The Australian clash that was washed out would have provided a clearer picture of where the Proteas actually are on the road to the home World Cup in 2027, but that of course didn’t happen. 

Losing to the Black Caps is no disgrace. It’s more about where the Proteas went wrong. 

And this is something where I feel the South Africans tripped themselves up before they had even boarded the plane to Pakistan. 

Losing Anrich Nortjé and Gerald Coetzee, along with Nandré Burger prior to the tournament, robbed the team of their X-factor. They simply did not have anyone else with the ability to generate the same amount of pace to break open games in the middle overs.

This is where Proteas coach Rob Walter needed to earn his salary. At that very moment, his original script needed to be torn to shreds. The Proteas could not rely on their pace attack anymore to win matches for the team. 

Walter did not also need to go treasure-hunting for the solution. All the major teams field a spinning all-rounder alongside their specialist spinner. 

Judging by Wednesday’s starting XI, selected by Walter as the Proteas do not have a selection panel, it seems the head coach has lost faith in wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi.

This only emphasises the point even more that George Linde had to be part of the original 15-man squad.

Linde has been excellent all season across formats in both disciplines. His international comeback against Pakistan – albeit in the T20 format – last year would have shown Walter his qualities first hand. 

It was actually embarrassing that Linde was sitting in the dressing-room as an official reserve after only being flown over as cover for Aiden Markram on the eve of the semi-final. 

The Proteas white-ball outfit is often compared to the Proteas red-ball team coached by Shukri Conrad.

I feel it’s an unfair comparison due to the entirely different demands of the various formats. 

But the one thing Conrad does get right that Walter can certainly take lessons from is selection clarity. 

Conrad makes the hard calls. Has the uncomfortable conversations. And all the while staying in the barometers that every Proteas coach encounters and is acutely aware of when he signs on the dotted line upon taking the job.

Transformation is not an excuse for selecting unbalanced teams. Good cricketing decisions should always lead the discussion.

Another bare Proteas carcass from a major ICC tournament lays in the dust for the hyenas to feed on.

There will be discussions held at a much higher level that my meagre pay grade allows me to be privy to. 

Hopefully, though, after all of it, the realisation will come to the fore that this tournament was not lost at the Gaddafi Stadium, but actually due to the lack of cricket nous being applied from the outset.