BY DEAN CLOETE
Proteas coach Rob Walter is not sakking his vlag and believes they will be vuurwarm in February’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan.
Results have not been kind to the Proteas’ white-ball coach and after suffering a 36-run defeat in Sunday night’s third and final ODI against Pakistan at the Wanderers to lose the series 3-0, the pressure is increasing on him to keep his job.
But Walter is nie geworried nie – even after becoming the first Proteas side be whitewashed in a home ODI series and reckons they’ve still got this.
SA don’t play a lot of ODI cricket before the tournament, with their next taste of the 50-over game being a Tri-Nation series against Pakistan and New Zealand next year in preparation for the Champs Trophy.
Walter took South Africa to the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-finals and then to the T20 World Cup final this year, where they lost to India.
Looking to go one better, he says: “The reality is that the lead-up to the Champions Trophy won’t be anything like the lead-up to the World Cup. That’s the reality of it. The way the schedule is stacked up.
“But at the end of the day you’ve just got to trust in the quality of the players, I know they will shine through when it comes to the world events. When it comes to these events the guys tend to play their best cricket, they tend to step up.
“The T20 World Cup to be fair, we were all together just two days before the start of it. The switching in codes will potentially pose a little bit of a challenge for us, but it’s not like the guys aren’t playing 50-over cricket.
“I trust that when the time comes they’ll be there.”