Following their 3-1 T20I series defeat to Pakistan on Friday, Proteas coach Mark Boucher is still confident that they can be a threat at this year’s World Cup in India in October.
Since Boucher took over as head coach of the team, they have lost all five of the T20I series they’ve played in – four of them on home soil.
After losing Friday’s final match of the four-match series against Pakistan by three wickets, Boucher says of the mounting pressure on him: “If I had to worry about public opinion and all that type of stuff, I probably would have hung myself a long time ago. So no, we stuck to what we believe is the right way to go...
“I said from the start there is a lot of hard work to be done and we’re working hard… pressure is going to be there no matter what. “If you can’t handle the pressure, you have to get out of the kitchen.
“We understand the public wants to win, we’re sticking to our guns and looking forward to getting back a full-strength team and work with a strong squad going to the World Cup.”
Boucher believes they can turn things around when they travel to the West Indies for a proposed series of two Tests and five T20Is in June.
He explains: “We [must] get our squad back together, get all our players fit and available to play. We’ve always earmarked this West Indies trip coming up as the one where our full squad has to be together. It would’ve been nice to have it now for this tour as well.”
He adds of the team’s results: “I think we’re on the right path – we’ve lost a couple of series, but there’s been reasons for that. There are no excuses, we’ve still got to try and win with the squad we put out. But it has given us a better view of what our depth pool is like.”