Possible golden era for Proteas?

According to this SA journo anyway. Isolation probably robbed them off a prolonged golden era when they had an embarrassment of riches in the early 70s. It's amazing when things are looking up that the garden always appears rosier and the glass is more full than empty. A bit like the antithesis of what some Aussie fans are thinking atm.

Proteas blossom
30 Jan 2009

RAY WHITE asks if this is the dawn of a new golden age in South African cricket

WHATEVER happened last night in Perth, the Proteas’ tour to Australia has been a greater success than most of us anticipated. Nearly all those who played on the trip have returned home with their reputations enhanced.

This is a state of affairs not common to cricket teams that have toured Australia. Teams and captains have often been broken by the experience. Novices have been exposed as too full of fault-lines. Even veterans accustomed to touring Down Under have discovered that their previous visits were little more than rehearsals for humiliation.

One understands that the loss of so many brilliant players in such a short space of time was always going to be a problem for the Aussies, but the extent of their team’s decline has been a surprise.

The few who remained from the glory days have played with less confidence than when all round them stood greatness. The newcomers have made a mockery of the so-called superiority of the Australian system.

The intensity of state cricket was supposed to produce a stream of ready-made Test cricketers impatient for the chance to display their skills on a larger stage.


It was clearly asking too much of the system to be able to replace at short notice the über-stars of recent years, but at least we expected that the transition would still find the Aussies able to defend their home turf with more resolution than we have seen this summer.

Even outrageous luck with the toss has been of no help to Ponting and his stricken team.
What should be worrying the Aussies is that their replacements have been longer in the tooth than most of the South Africans who have just caned them.

Where are all their young fast-bowlers, precocious batsmen and promising spinners? What has happened to all that talent that has been making its way through the high-flown academies that have been slavishly imitated by other countries?

Have the fallen oaks cast shadows too big for others to grow in their shade? Did complacency creep into Australian cricket in the same way its deadly sinews have strangled the game in the Caribbean?

From the outside it is difficult to tell, but let us enjoy the moment for national pride will not allow the Australians to accept for long a cricket team that cannot hold its own at the top of the world game. They will be back.

None of this means that the Aussies will be a pushover when they tour here later this summer. Both Clarks, one with an “e” and the other without, will be fit again and so might Brett Lee. Phil Jacques will return to reinforce the batting at the top of the order and presumably Andrew Symonds will be forgiven again for another mindless indiscretion.

These five will make a big difference, but only Michael Clarke is under 30. Most of this team will soon be gone. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that tough times await the wearers of the baggy green.

No such worries exist for South Africa cricket unless one starts fretting now about the retirement of Jacques Kallis, but with his technique he should be able to play as a batsman for another four years. It is his bowling, however, that has given a precious balance to the team.

Kallis’s bowling has developed a maturity and cunning in recent years, but it is too much to expect many more overs from him.

The South African batting has an embarrassment of riches. It is by no means certain that Ashwell Prince, one of the stars of the tour to England, will regain his place in the team. His inclusion would mean a reshuffling of the batting order, which apparently would not be to anyone’s satisfaction, least of all Kallis, who would be forced to bat at three.

Given the amount of bowling Kallis has been doing, this is not an unreasonable attitude.
I would like to see Prince in the team, but if he cannot be accommodated other than in the place of Duminy, it is best that he remains outside it as a world-class reserve.

The good news is that we could have seven batsmen of Test class available for at least another four years and that there are any number of gifted young batsmen who have recently emerged from our schools.

Young talent often fails to bloom, but it is some years since so many promising cricketers have arrived on the scene all at once. Wrist-spinners, once neglected, abound in the schools.
One does not wish to place the mockers on a 17-year-old boy, but I have been watching the progress of a lefthander up here in Johannesburg.

He is quite simply the most prolific and best schoolboy batsman I have seen since Kallis himself. For his school first XI alone he has scored 13 hundreds and his final year has only just begun.

If he does not go on to play for the Proteas something will have gone amiss.
South African cricket has a shortage of fast bowlers below the Test team, but the best of these characters usually spring up later in the most unexpected of places.

Given that these peculiar sources do not dry up, it could be that, unlike the Aussies, a new golden age beckons South African cricket. Let us hope that this time the politicians let it happen.

There won't be a golden era unless they get a real spinner or 2 more Steyns.

JGK wrote:There won't be a golden era unless they get a real spinner or 2 more Steyns.

Can't remember the West Indies having a WC spinner during their golden era.

Sometimes, a new quick can emerge quite suddenly.
In any case, Morne Morkel will improve, Harris is a passable spinner on his Australian form and they have more good, mostly still young batsmen than they can accommodate.

I don't think the prediction is too far off course.

Anyone know the name of the gun 17 year old the bloke is talking about?

Not me. But Ray White has always been heavily involved in Transvaal (Lions) cricket and is a past chairman of the union.

Seems reasonable.

But I think India will win the next WC.

taipan wrote:But Ray White has always been heavily involved in Transvaal (Lions) cricket and is a past chairman of the union.

he's a good real estate man too.

(cough)

taipan wrote:

JGK wrote:There won't be a golden era unless they get a real spinner or 2 more Steyns.

Can't remember the West Indies having a WC spinner during their golden era.

But they had at least 3 Steyns.

JGK wrote:

But they had at least 3 Steyns.

and another 4-5 Steyns behind that, pushing the Steyns in the current team.

Talk of a golden era is BS 'for the moment' anyway.

Once they start dominating test series then maybe you can ask that question.

Following on 300 behind at Lords, having to score 280 to win at Edgbaston (could've been more but for a collapse) and needing 190 9th wicket partnerships to win in Aus is not a great recipe for a golden era.

What it does show is they're a very talented side on a great run and never out of a game.

JGK wrote:There won't be a golden era unless they get a real spinner or 2 more Steyns.

A fair call. Botha goes OK in the JAMODIs but I can't believe he won't be sent for remedial work if he starts playing in Tests again. And if Steyn breaks down, trouble.

Still, it does look like a golden age coming up for the Saffies. Enjoy.

JKLever wrote:

JGK wrote:

But they had at least 3 Steyns.

and another 4-5 Steyns behind that, pushing the Steyns in the current team.

They should get a better detergent then.

JKLever wrote:Talk of a golden era is BS 'for the moment' anyway.

Once they start dominating test series then maybe you can ask that question.

Following on 300 behind at Lords, having to score 280 to win at Edgbaston (could've been more but for a collapse) and needing 190 9th wicket partnerships to win in Aus is not a great recipe for a golden era.

What it does show is they're a very talented side on a great run and never out of a game.

Which proves what?

All the great tems show spirit when the chips are down.

taipan wrote:

JKLever wrote:Talk of a golden era is BS 'for the moment' anyway.

Once they start dominating test series then maybe you can ask that question.

Following on 300 behind at Lords, having to score 280 to win at Edgbaston (could've been more but for a collapse) and needing 190 9th wicket partnerships to win in Aus is not a great recipe for a golden era.

What it does show is they're a very talented side on a great run and never out of a game.

Which proves what?

All the great tems show spirit when the chips are down.

All the great teams dominate series, not give the opposition a sniff. Hey, i'd rather have had your results this past 12 months but I don't see an era of dominance based on what i've watched...

Jusy my opinion. Could be wrong. Fark, I backed Ian Bell long enough...

JKL, I am not he one promoting SA.

I just found your kneejerk reaction funny.

taipan wrote:

JKLever wrote:Talk of a golden era is BS 'for the moment' anyway.

Once they start dominating test series then maybe you can ask that question.

Following on 300 behind at Lords, having to score 280 to win at Edgbaston (could've been more but for a collapse) and needing 190 9th wicket partnerships to win in Aus is not a great recipe for a golden era.

What it does show is they're a very talented side on a great run and never out of a game.

Which proves what?

All the great tems show spirit when the chips are down.

P'raps JKL is suggesting that 'great' teams don't get in stick situations like those as regularly.

Zat wrote:

taipan wrote:

JKLever wrote:Talk of a golden era is BS 'for the moment' anyway.

Once they start dominating test series then maybe you can ask that question.

Following on 300 behind at Lords, having to score 280 to win at Edgbaston (could've been more but for a collapse) and needing 190 9th wicket partnerships to win in Aus is not a great recipe for a golden era.

What it does show is they're a very talented side on a great run and never out of a game.

Which proves what?

All the great tems show spirit when the chips are down.

P'raps JKL is suggesting that 'great' teams don't get in stick situations like those as regularly.

Or if they lose those situations they are not great teams.

Well today's match is certainly putting the Saffie "golden era" form into some perspective.

It's like saying Bob Key is one of England's greats on the back of his 200 against the Windies a couple of years ago.

JGK wrote:Well today's match is certainly putting the Saffie "golden era" form into some perspective.

It's like saying Bob Key is one of England's greats on the back of his 200 against the Windies a couple of years ago.

The tenor of the article suggests to me that he was thinking more in terms of tests and I bet we would still torch the kiwis in that format despite our shortcomings.

SA has acknowledged that its one day team is far from the finished article.