South Africa

[Jono]

If Australia win this WC it'll show (once again) just how stupid the selectors were last year.

[Xuhaib]

would be awesome if Windies can somehow win.

[BoyBrumby]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

Oz have the best team on paper, IMHO. SA don't have quite enough dashers in the top order for my liking. The Oz skipper the only real weak link in their chain.

Told you so. ****house effort today, it must be said. Gibbs a pale shadow of his former self.

[Top_Cat]

Ah dear, SA again. Interesting how the players who are clearly past it only seem to show it in their team's most high-profile match of the tournament, further deepening the embarrassment.

[Faisal1985]

As a Pakistani, may be it has become a 2nd nature of mine to see where their might be some sort rift going on. TBH, the way Morkel and Botha were playing for the last over was very odd to me. Ajmal bowled a short one which for a batsman like Morkel could have been deposited easily over the mid wicket boundary.

Is there a rift going on in the SA team over Smith's captaincy?

[social]

Smith launches Twitter tirade at Kepler Wessels | Cricket News | Global | Cricinfo.com

Smith raises an interesting point about the opinions of former SA players

Looks as though this might get ugly and will probably come down to who has the stronger support

[Sir Alex]

Former South Africa players call for overhaul in the wake of the team's World Twenty20 exit | Cricket Features | ICC World Twenty20 2010 | Cricinfo.com

I really lol'd at the following mention:

Matthews laid some of the blame for South Africa's poor showing at the door of the IPL. "The IPL doesn't help other teams. The only South African who benefitted from playing in the IPL was Jacques Kallis. The rest of them all sat on the sidelines."

[pasag]

Originally Posted by Sir Alex

Former South Africa players call for overhaul in the wake of the team's World Twenty20 exit | Cricket Features | ICC World Twenty20 2010 | Cricinfo.com

I really lol'd at the following mention:

Matthews laid some of the blame for South Africa's poor showing at the door of the IPL. "The IPL doesn't help other teams. The only South African who benefitted from playing in the IPL was Jacques Kallis. The rest of them all sat on the sidelines."

It's interesting though, maybe the IPL should have some sort of seconds league to keep players fresh, even just for each IPLs team's benefit.

[vic_orthdox]

Maybe just on the weekday games when there are only one games, you could have curtain raisers. Gives great opportunity for the developing players to play alongside some of the guys who miss out on games for their IPL side/

[Sir Alex]

It's a pathetic argument by the SA top mgmt. If your players can't get into the playing XI of an IPL team for major part of the tournament, then that shows how good they are and be taken as a barometer while selecting your teams, isn't it?

Further the following are the number of games played by Saffers

Ab Devilliers played 7
Kallis played 16
Albie Morkel played 14
Theron played 7
Steyn played 15
Boucher 5

Morne played 2
Van Der Merwe 1
Botha Nil

So it's not as if the entire contingent was benched for entire IPL. What is the alternative had there been no IPL?

[Sir Alex]

With alternating home and away games every 2 days, and with a total of 14 games in 2 months, I am not sure how effective can be a second XI program,particularly one which can do justice to the foreign players. With such a short time, emphasis is always on using the best resource based on it's form, rather than working on a resource to make it achieve desired output levels.

[Jono]

**** them. They can come take the money but if they aren't deserving of a game, tough ****.

[Shifter]

I don't know some people can't just accept that they played poorly, as they have been doing in limited overs cricket since their exit from the last T20 world cup. IPL has nothing to do with it.

[vic_orthdox]

Originally Posted by Sir Alex

With alternating home and away games every 2 days, and with a total of 14 games in 2 months, I am not sure how effective can be a second XI program,particularly one which can do justice to the foreign players. With such a short time, emphasis is always on using the best resource based on it's form, rather than working on a resource to make it achieve desired output levels.

Surely it's better for the teams themselves to have their back-ups playing games, in some form, so that a player that gets called up (due to injury or poor form of someone else) isn't coming in cold?

[Sir Alex]

Originally Posted by vic_orthdox

Surely it's better for the teams themselves to have their back-ups playing games, in some form, so that a player that gets called up (due to injury or poor form of someone else) isn't coming in cold?

Yes, it indeed is a good suggestion, and I will be hugely surprised if the non-first-choice players are just asked stay at home rather than involve in some practise matches in the mean time their main squad is travelling around the country.

But that said, I don't see the relevance of this with the contention by SA management about IPL.