When this current crop of players call it a day, there simply is no stars ready to make the step-up.
As much was evident with the recent call-up of 33-year-old opening batsman Heino Kuhn.
Now we know we don’t have openers in this country, but surely after nog ‘* ou man - Stephen Cook - failed as an opener it was time to give a youngster the opportunity to step up in the Test whites.
I mean, what do you expect of Kuhn?
If he was going to be played in Tests for the first time at that age, you’d expect him to score runs and a lot of them.
He is a stop-gap. He doesn’t have the luxury of playing 10 Tests and then only getting his first ton.
That’s for youngsters.
Problem is, South Africa don’t have youngsters coming through that can be superstars at Test level.
A lot has been said about a player such as Aiden Markram.
And while he isn’t ready for Test cricket yet, I think it’s time to squeeze him ready.
A number of batsmen in the current team are over 30 and voor jy jou oë uitvee, then they will be klaar with cricket.
So if the Proteas haven’t prepped for that day, they will be in groot k@k in a few years’ time.