World cup selections, it’s the process not the player

A year ago to the day, Mickey Arthur resigned as coach of the Proteas, how different would his World Cup squad have looked to the one that has been chosen?

Most selections are controversial, many people are asking where Mark Boucher is and why Wayne Parnell has been selected ahead of Rusty Theron …. It’s a lack of process that bothers me more than the selection or omission of any individual player.

I don’t profess to be a business strategy guru, but it’s common knowledge that long term success is built on the principle that you need to develop a process or system that works and then measure an individual’s performance against that system. If there is a problem with one of the steps in your process or system, you then review, change and review it again in a process of continual improvement.

I recently read an article on CricInfo by Firdose Moonda, “South Africa roll the dice”. In the article Firdose says :” Risk and South African cricket have not made a happy couple in the past…”. I agree with Firdose’s analogy that South Africa are rolling the dice, but disagree that they are just taking a ‘risk’; they are gambling.

Had the Board of Cricket South Africa followed a successful process would they have selected a player for a World Cup who hadn’t yet played an ODI? Would they have chosen a player who made his debut on the day the squad was announced? I think not.

Can we really expect Faf du Plessis to perform against India, in front of 40 000 Indian supporters at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground? When last did Faf play in India… has he played on the sub-continent?

The shortcomings of the selectors were further exposed by the addition of Albie Morkel in the ODI squad to play against the touring Indian team, this after he was dropped from the Proteas squad and left out of the World Cup squad. Albie was then removed from the squad two days later. Again that’s a reaction rather than a planned outcome.

It’s simply short-sighted to hold Tahir back and say that we want to use him as a secret weapon. It’s utter nonsense, he was kept out the team because we were batting poorly and Tahir can’t bat to save his life. I hope we deal with the batting issues, if we don’t Tahir won’t even get a game.

The Board of Cricket South Africa and the selectors have gambled with our team, they are sending our boys to the World Cup with an interim coach, a captain on the way out, inexperienced players and with a political cloud hanging over their heads.

They have gambled, plain and simple… all we can do is hope Graeme Smith can roll a 7.

4 Responses to “World cup selections, it’s the process not the player”

cricket worldcup 2011 says:
January 30, 2011 at 8:37 pm

Often selectors are biased towards player who doesn’t belong to their region
Bongani Ndlovu says:
February 1, 2011 at 12:39 pm

Im very disappointed with the selection

firstly, why is tyre playing for south africa? why not give tshabala a chance, it is really unfair, only a few blacks in the team…

we are the disadvantaged who supposed to be given a chance, why dont take more players from pakistan and zimbabwe and put in the team

Dear Minister of Sport – this is unfair to black South Africans
vivek says:
February 8, 2011 at 12:32 pm

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Derrick says:
December 19, 2011 at 9:30 am

I was really impressed by the performance of the Proteas against Sri Lanka in the first test, Vernon Philander is most impressing.

I think Dale Steyn should stay at current batting order instead of being brought in as Night watchman, that nightwatchmen story doesnt go to well with Proteas, Imran Tahir should move up 2 places in batting order.

Mark Boucher should be dropped a long time ago, Please replace with Tsolikele. Give him a chance atleast.

Jacque Roedolf must be taken out and replaced with Collin Ingram or
Neil Mckensie.

Bowling is now perfect and we have good selection

South Africa is the BEST 5 Day team in the world,
if only they can do well in other forms of the game

we await and see…