CSA have to find an answer for the sleepwalking Proteas.
The team’s tour of India was them hitting rock bottom after one of those falls we have in our dreams.
But have our cricket chiefs woken up from that jolt like we did? Nope.
A 3-0 whitewash of innings-defeats was as bad as I want to imagine it gets without Freddy Krueger slashing up your derems.
But there is almost nothing positive that can be said about their cricket.
The only thing that I can come up with is that everything about the coaching staff is interim.
So let’s start there.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY: Enoch Nkwe, right. Picture: BackpagePix.
Coach Enoch Nkwe and his backroom have been a hodgepodge of consultants and moerby hands.
Perhaps a more permanent structure will see better results.
After all, what message does it send to the players that the men calling shots are just passers-by in the bigger scheme of things?
India laid bare everything bad about South African cricket.
It showed up a lack of leadership and vision at the very top.
It showed the inability for our coaches come up with an aggressive plan of attack to beat their opponents.
To be honest, I was impressed by the thinking to send a number of players ahead of the main group to ready them for a spinning contest in India.
But throwing in three spinners, Senuran Muthusamy, Dane Piedt and Keshav Maharaj, for the first Test was a huge misjudgment.
I don’t want to just write these players off, but if you want they didn’t look up to the job even after a month of work.
They had me wondering if Dean Elgar, Theunis de Bruyn or Aiden Markram couldn’t have done a better job as a part timer.
In the end, India did most of their strike bowling with their speedsters.
That’s our strength and we didn’t back what we have.
India hit the right lengths when attacking the stumps and voila.
SPINNING IN PLACE: SA's Senuran Muthusamy. Picture: BackpagePix.
Our bowlers were dishing up pies and India declared in all five their innings after vreeting themselves dik on runs.
Which brings us to our batting.
What’s happening there?
Only two centuries were scored in six outings and a South African wicket just 23 runs on average.
There was very little intent show and we looked clueless at transferring pressure onto opposition bowlers.
They looked as flat as they did at the World Cup, when they seemed to have forgotten how to do their job.
TOP QUALITY: Experienced coach Gary Kirsten. Picture: Gavin Barker/BackpagePix.
That total disinterest speaks of disillusionment. But something needs to be done to wake up these sleepwalkers.
Maybe bringing Gary Kirsten in at the top after he was past up for the England job will be the permanent, real deal the Proteas need to get this team to get their eye in again.