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Kirsten noted that South Africa cannot keep relying on Kallis to come to the rescue
South Africa have been known as the ‘chokers’ since the 1999 World Cup, but in his final act as the national team’s head coach, Gary Kirsten finally admitted that his side had indeed “choked” during their semi-final clash with England in the recently concluded Champions Trophy.
Prior to the match, South Africa captain AB de Villiers remained adamant that his side would not ‘choke’ against England, but in the end that was exactly what happened and, as a result, the Proteas were dumped out of the tournament after being defeated by seven wickets.
With South Africa having ‘choked’ in every major tournament over the last couple of years, it is no surprise that numerous cricket pundits will brand them as the ‘chokers’ heading into the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 in Bangladesh next year and the ICC World Cup in 2015.
“I think we did choke in the game,” Kirsten said. “It’s an uncomfortable word but you’ve got to make yourself comfortable with it. It’s a horrible word, it does get used, we’ve spoken about it, we are open about it.
“We let ourselves down. You’ve got to accept that’s what it is. They bowled exceptionally well but that doesn’t mean your batting line-up should be 80 for 8.
“If we had the secret recipe to turn it around, we would certainly have packaged it and be selling it. We give it our best shot in our preparation, we try different things. It’s definitely a dark mist that hangs over South African cricket in knockout events.
“At some point we are going to have to try and cross the line. It’s going to require some real charisma, some real guts and glory to get over the line. It might not be pretty but at some point we are going to have to do it. It is an unfortunate thing. It’s not for lack of trying. It does require an enormous amount of resilience, maybe certain types of individuals who can do it for us.
“These guys play really good cricket year after year. At some point, you need to cross the line because people will continue looking at you and saying you can’t do it. I don’t think as individuals they get emotionally hijacked because they play brilliantly for other teams. It will require some really tough individuals to overcome it.”
Kirsten also noted that the lack of limited overs silverware did not reflect well on his tenure as head coach, despite helping the Proteas achieve the top ranking in Test cricket.
“We haven’t improved, he added. “That’s where the question mark needs to come over me so maybe it’s not a bad thing I am leaving. As a coach you always want to take the team forward. There are some good signs. We are playing some good one-day cricket but in events of this nature, we haven’t gone forward.
“We haven’t been consistent. That’s maybe because we’ve explored quite a lot of combinations over the last few years. We’ve broadened our base. When you play in important tournaments like this maybe you get exposed. We’ve given it our best shot to try and overcome it and we haven’t.”
One veteran player that South Africa sorely missed was Jacques Kallis, who ruled himself out of the Champions Trophy due to personal reasons, but Kirsten stated that the team cannot constantly keep relying on an individual who is approaching the end of his international career.
“In high pressure games, you want your most experienced players,” Kirsten said. “But at the same time they can have a lot of scarring from past events. South African cricket has got to move past Jacques Kallis.
“We’ve got to start finding other players, which I think we have. Our strength was our batting line-up and we focused our attention on the middle order. Bowling-wise, we’ve explored the talent. There is still more out there. At some point you need to find some stability.”