South Africa’s $68 million opportunity to rebuild team, India’s chance to forget World Cup heartbreak
India and South Africa are at a curiously similar place as they start a month-long tour with a three-game T20 series from Sunday. Both teams will view the ODI World Cup with a bittersweetness. Both teams had issues before the big event but South Africa dazzled against Australia in a home series as did India at the Asia Cup. And they forced the world to gape at them later during the ICC event. Now both teams look at fresher faces in the T20 series to take them forward.
Off the field too, both nations are casting their nets in similarly diverse places for unearthing talent. For a while now, South Africa have been social-engineering their teams with black quotas to reflect the larger populace of the country but have been facing criticism for it. One of the less-convincing condemnation has been that the black population isn’t interested in the game. Telford Vice, a senior South African journalist, corrects the misconception. (Read more from Sriram Veera)
