hn_ANI2_south_africa_johansberg_ab_devilliers_14-30-29

ETVBHARAT

1/12/2025

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00:00There is another opportunity in the same set of players in the next month's Champions League.

00:11How do you see this overall progress?

00:13What sort of leadership do you see in this team?

00:18Because when South Africa wasn't at the top of the world, that was the top of the chess rankings,

00:22which was about 20 years back or 30 years back.

00:24You had different members of the squad taking roles as different leaders

00:28How do you see this change?

00:58There's a lot of new things, and still they qualified for the T20 World Cup final, the WTC final.

01:05It is actually incredible, and I feel they deserve a lot more credit for achieving this.

01:10It's going to take a little bit of time to find that consistency that we've had,

01:14maybe between 2008 and 2015, where we were consistently around one of the top teams in the world.

01:22And they will get there, it takes time.

01:24New teams have to go through those phases to find the experienced players again,

01:28to find the right mix of players.

01:30I was there in 2005, 2006 and 2007, where we were all over the place.

01:34Very difficult, very inconsistent.

01:36It was very difficult to find our groove, and then in 2008 we started clicking.

01:40But we had to go through those hard times first.

01:43AB, you mentioned about the WTC final.

01:46Seven wins in a row, getting there.

01:48But facing a tough opponent like Australia, who have just beaten India 3-1,

01:54making a come-from-behind series win,

01:59how difficult or how challenging is it going to be for South Africa?

02:03And what are the key areas do you think they need to seize to get the better of it?

02:06Just an additional part of that question.

02:08Yesterday we had a conversation with Sean Pollack,

02:11and he wasn't too excited about South Africa's prospects.

02:14So your take on that?

02:17Yes, OK, first of all...

02:22Sorry, I'm trying to find the first one again.

02:24What do they have to do to win against a team like Australia?

02:27You asked something else first, sorry, and I was watching that six.

02:30And I'm also checking this, I licked his two balls before the last time I was out,

02:33I've got to run down.

02:35There's no doubt Australia are favourites.

02:37There was the first question.

02:39Proteus have done exceptionally well in the last while.

02:42It shows you they're playing a positive brand of cricket,

02:44they've got wonderful results, I love that about them.

02:46And not only the seven wins in a row, before that it was one draw,

02:49and then a bunch of wins again in a row before that.

02:51So I think it's like 10 out of 11 test match wins.

02:54It's an incredible stat, it doesn't happen often.

02:57And once again, credit's got to go to them, and the coaching staff,

03:00and the way they are approaching their cricket,

03:02with Thien-Baba Bouma as captain,

03:04taking a lot of criticism over the years,

03:06and look at where he is now, taking the team to the WTC final,

03:10over and above incredible cricketing nations like India,

03:13like New Zealand, like England, so great achievement.

03:16But yes, the reason why they're not favourites

03:19is they're still very inexperienced.

03:21They haven't travelled to places like England of late,

03:24they haven't been to Australia,

03:26so travelling experience comes with time as well.

03:29Yes, they played well in Bangladesh,

03:31but it was only two test match series

03:33against not one of the best teams in the world.

03:35So now they're up against Australia,

03:37at Lord's, a moving wicket,

03:39against one of the best bowling attacks in the world,

03:41a batting line-up that bats deep,

03:43they all seem to be in form,

03:45but I will never write my team off.

03:47They're a bunch of fighters,

03:49and Thien-Baba Bouma mentioned this in the press conference,

03:51he said, I will take this team to war,

03:53because I know they're going to fight for each other.

03:55So, that's all you want.

03:57If you have that kind of attitude, you can achieve anything,

03:59and I'll back the guys to go all the way and win this WTC final.

04:02Especially these wins have come on the back of a team

04:05which haven't had one of the top players,

04:07because a lot of players have been sidelined due to injuries,

04:10but guys like Kwena and David Benningham,

04:13coming in, scoring for him,

04:15he's been taking excellent catches in the slips as well.

04:17Just a word about these youngsters,

04:19two of these youngsters, Kwena and David.

04:21The most important thing is to stick with the team they've got now,

04:23with the 13, 14, 15 players,

04:25and build around that.

04:27That's what I had when I grew up,

04:29in the pro TSI, Graham Smith backed me,

04:32I wasn't always consistent in the first few years,

04:34and he stuck with me.

04:36And then finally,

04:38the team reaped the rewards from me becoming more consistent.

04:41Quite a few other examples like that,

04:43Ashim Amla, Dale Stone,

04:45the list goes on.

04:46You could easily have dropped those players,

04:47because they were inconsistent early on,

04:49but they stuck with the team,

04:50they believed in what they had,

04:51and I feel the pro TSI need to do the same now.

04:53They have a very special group of players together,

04:55stick with the guys,

04:56it's going to be inconsistent at times,

04:58but just stick with them.

04:59That's what I feel.

hn_ANI2_south_africa_johansberg_ab_devilliers_14-30-29

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