“I say Killer! You say Miller!” implores the in-stadium announcer at the Maharashtra Cricket Association in Pune, India. “Killer!” he goes. “Miller!” the 32,000 spectators shout back.
“Quinton,” he screams next. “De Kock!” the fans reply. “Quin-ton!” “De Kock!” and on and on it rolls. “Rassie! Rassie! Rassie!” No, not Erasmus, even though the exploits of the Springboks have received publicity in India, but Van der Dussen, after he completed a stunning hundred against New Zealand.
From the Wankhede in Mumbai to the Chidambaram in Chennai, Pune to Delhi, the Proteas have felt the love from Indian cricket fans. For many locals the men in green are their second-favourite team at this World Cup.
It’s affection the South African men’s cricket team has rarely received at home, certainly not in the past decade, since the last great team led by Graeme Smith started breaking up. Instead, the sport has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Some like to point out that they fell out of love when Hansie Cronje got caught up in a spot-fixing scandal in 2000, but Smith’s side won back the public’s support, thanks to success particularly in the Test format, by winning twice in England and Australia.
However, Cricket SA’s administrators couldn’t build on those achievements and for most of the past decade the sport has been mired in scandal. There was a governmental commission of inquiry after the “bonus scandal” in 2011, which led to then CEO Gerald Majola being ousted.
His successor, Haroon Lorgat, was kicked out of the organisation after patience ran out regarding the establishment of a T20 franchise league. Maladministration followed, with CEO Thabang Moroe ousted after money was wasted, sponsors left and the media was banned.
On the field, the retirement of a generation of some of the country’s greatest players, from Jacques Kallis to Hashim Amla, Smith, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander, saw the Proteas suffer too.
The South African public just grew tired. Though that playing group achieved historic success in the Test arena and at World Cups — ODI and T20 versions — the Proteas have kept coming up short.
Try as they might, whether it be through misfortune, complacency or administrative ineptness, the team have failed to make even the final of a major limited-overs competition.
The weight of those defeats is borne by each subsequent generation that challenged for a World Cup, the burden growing heavier each year. They have not been helped by the success of the Springboks, against whom each failure is quickly measured.
The rugby and cricket World Cups always take place in the same year, but this year, direct comparisons could be made as the schedules of the two tournaments coincided. The Proteas knew their performances would be juxtaposed with that of their rugby brethren.
From our side, you realise there’s people at home and fans who’ve been really scarred by previous performances of South Africa at World Cups
— Rassie van der Dussen
And the players are fine with it. Asked before the World Cup if drawing comparisons between the teams was fair, David Miller replied: “No, because they have won three World Cups.”
The players understand better than CSA’s administrators why the South African public remains sceptical.
“It would be silly to say that we don’t know anything about that (cynicism),” said Miller. “From our side, you realise there’s people at home and fans who’ve been really scarred by previous performances of South Africa at World Cups,” said Van der Dussen.
“And you can’t really criticise them for feeling that way. The criticism, I suppose, comes from a place of hurt, where they’ve seen that movie before.”
Added to that has been mismanagement from CSA and the players regarding the Black Lives Matter issue, while social justice and nation-building hearings, meant to act as a foundation to ensure stronger bonds across class, race and gender, descended into a finger-pointing affair that did a lot of harm, causing more reputational damage.
As players, the Proteas can only change the narrative through deeds on the field. At this World Cup, inspired they say by what the Boks did in France, they have put together an excellent run of performances that has put them into the semifinals.
They came into the competition very much under the radar, with the off- and on-field controversies of the past decade still hanging over them. But borrowing from that dreadful sports cliché, “controlling controllables”, they have created a strategy with the bat that is clear — a slow build-up, with explosive hitting in the last 20 overs — while the bowlers’ primary goal is wicket-taking, not containment.
If that sounds simple, it’s because it is. Too often the Proteas have become caught up in trying to be too fancy. That doesn’t win trophies. The Boks’ simple but effective on-field strategy proved that.
De Kock is the tournament’s leading run-scorer, becoming the first South African batter to score more than 500 runs in a single World Cup tournament. He, Van Der Dussen and Heinrich Klaasen have made hundreds.
Marco Jansen has taken 16 wickets, the second-highest so far, while Gerald Coetzee has 14 and Kagiso Rabada 11. They are achieving the necessary individual landmarks and collectively avenging painful defeats from World Cups past — like halting a six-match losing streak against New Zealand and a seven-match string of defeats to Pakistan.
That’s how to earn back the South African public’s respect. In India, perhaps with the exception of today’s clash in Kolkata against the host nation, they already garner plenty of support and affection. In South Africa, it will take more time.
Siya Kolisi’s men didn’t immediately earn the kind of reverence they now hold. They had to work for it, causing lots of angst along the way and upsetting many people, but they were also clear about the direction of their journey.
The Proteas still have some travelling to do. Winning a semifinal is something they’ve yet to achieve and until they do, South Africans will remain wary.
But the players know that and they’re comfortable knowing they can’t just expect their countrymen to support them. They need to give them something to shout about. “To put it bluntly, it will only stop when we win a World Cup,” said “Killer” Miller.
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