For Proteas, pandemonium hasn’t reigned, it’s poured

Most of us confuse bad management with destiny. There is a feeling in South Africa that the team lost out because of bad luck. But you cannot be three times unlucky; then the fault lies elsewhere. In this case, with Pollock, who as captain has to take the rap for his team’s failure.

The first signs of the storm brewing came when team members spoke of Pollock’s predecessor Hansie Cronje. It showed that Pollock’s command over the team was waning. You cannot captain a fractious, divided and politicised team by being part of any group — or even look on as an outsider. You have to elevate yourself above the politics.

The best example of this was, of course, the great Imran Khan, who ruled over the Pakistani team from a pedestal where none dared knock him off.

Pollock was a good cricketer but was he a good captain? His captaincy was predictable, to say the least, his moves clearly dictated by the pressures from the media and the public. Pressure is what you allow it to be. In this case, Pollock gave in too easily, too often.

First, the Donald affair. Why drop your greatest fast bowler if you’ve picked him in the squad? As media and public demands for Donald’s axing grew, Pollock caved in. Then, compounding the mistake, he played Monde Zondeki in a crunch game, effectively throwing him to the wolves. The young bowler cracked under the pressure but the blame eventually fell on Pollock.

The benign pitches hastened the team’s downfall. They did not play to their strength, which was juicy, fast pitches but instead on the slower pitches laid for the tournament.

Equally inexplicable was the drafting in of Graeme Smith as a replacement for the injured Jonty Rhodes. Here was a middle-order bat being replaced by an opener.

It had a domino effect; to accommodate Smith, Gary Kirsten had to drop down one spot. For one, that meant the splitting of a phenomenal partnership — Kirsten and Gibbs are one of the most potent opening pairs. It also meant that Jacques Kallis, the dependable, talented and consistent No. 3, had to move down to No. 6.

Why the selectors did not bring in Andrew Hall, a middle-order bat, is mysterious. The secret of success does not lie in your work but in recognising the right people to do it.

The third nail in the coffin was, of course, the ill-fated crunch match against Sri Lanka. It was a hero-zero situation; one ball, one run and South africa could have been topping their pool but lack of communication spelled their Waterloo. It was a match in which pandemonium did not reign, it poured.

I’ve been in a similar situation, against the West Indies, and I remember my teammates screaming at me after every ball, coming on with water, using every trick in the book to tell me what was required of me. Why didn’t Nicky Boje simply ignore the umpire and get his message across? In these situations you can’t be goody-goody, you have to get the job done. A lost inch of gold can be found, a lost minute of time — never.

So Pollock is gone, and the selectors have replaced him with Graeme Smith. It seems a curious decision; Smith is 22 and has more years to his name that Test matches. He will be much junior to many of his teammates, especially Kirsten.

But the rationale is obviously to rebuild the side, to start from scratch, and the selectors have obviously decided to take a risk. He who doesn’t throw the dice will never get a six. The aim was to break the links with the Cronje era; the seniors in the side would have come in with chips on their shoulders and some sort of emotional and personal baggage.

In that respect Smith appears the right choice. Those who’ve seen him tell me he is captaincy material; he has attitude, he can be a tough customer. He doesn’t appear to be part of any of the cliques, yet isn’t a Pollock loyalist either.

South Africa appear to be building for the future. It’s a good decision because their present has been tinged with too much sorrow and tragedy. Smith offers hope for a brighter tomorrow.