CricketZA

With Quinton de Kock having been eliminated from the running to be captain of the South African national team, the remaining nominees have basically selected themselves. First up is the diminutive maestro, Temba Bavuma. The general rule of thumb in the modern game is to pick your best XI, and then pick your captain from that best XI. This was not always the case, however, with men like Dr. Ali Bacher and Mike Brearley both having been made Test captain despite arguably not being part of the best XI players in their respective national set up. Cricket is different from other sports when it comes to captaincy. In other sports, the role of captain is a largely off-field job. How much can having Ronaldo as captain actually change your fortunes, for example? While I'm sure he's an inspirational figure, he is responsible for none of the tactical decisions made in the flow of a game. Not directly anyway. In contrast to this, the role of Test captain may be the single most import...

It's something of a meme, but Faf du Plessis has a reputation for being the most alpha human being to ever don a Protea jersey. You can see why too. His first Test match: Scored an unbeaten hundred to see out an unlikely draw in Adelaide. His First World Cup: Nearly gets into a fist fight with Darryl Tuffey. Nearly gets suspended after Mintgate, and has to bat in a Day/Night Test: Boom a Test match hundred. du Plessis has a reputation for being something of a tough guy in cricketing circles. Not in that "thuggish brute" sense, where you're basically calling someone dirty; more in the sense that when the going gets Faf, the Faf get going. He's cricket's Chuck Norris is what I am trying to say. On a different, but very related note, the gold standard for an elite batsman is an average of 50. South Africa's number 3 and 4 combined average 50. Once South Africa lose an early wicket, it becomes very apparent that they will very quickly be losing two more beca...

First things first, South African cricket is going through something of a metamorphosis. Hashim Amla's retirement from the game as well as Dale Steyn's retirement from Test cricket has lost South Africa about 220 Tests worth of experience. It would have been a lot to expect the absolute best version of the South African cricket team to go to India, who have only lost one home Test, not series, Test, in 7 years and win. To expect a team undergoing change to compete with serious hopes of winning is probably a little much. But, we are South Africans. Expecting too much is what we do. Always has been. On that note, it's time to speak about the elephant in the batting room. Not Quinton de Kock wasting away at 7, only coming in when the game is gone. No, the other elephant in the room. In case you missed it, Temba Bavuma has been named the team's vice captain, and with Faf du Plessis a not young 35-years old, it does stand to reason that Bavuma is the next in line to ho...