Hard long road ahead to World Cup

Shaun Pollock, Eric Simons and Omar Henry will have 36 long hours, as they travel home, to contemplate on the good and bad after losing the final of the Morocco Cup against Sri Lanka. By the time they reach South Africa on Saturday morning they should have a good idea as to where to go from here.

Granted, the conditions did not suit the South Africans. Granted, they came out of an off season. Granted, they lost the toss in the final. All arguments we heard prior to and during the tournament. Was it all really so bad? Maybe not, but there are areas of concern..

Pollock must be very worried about his current form. Having played cricket in England he only took two wickets in the tournament at an average of 90.00 and a strike rate of 132. His economy rate was the best of all the South African bowlers but is he the prime candidate to open the bowling? With the bat he scored 41 runs at an average of 13.66. During his last 10 matches he has only taken seven wickets at an average of 59.28 and in his last 10 one-day international innings scored a total of 75 runs at an average of 12.5. Pollock is far to good a cricket to stay in this kind of form and will be back.

Roger Telemachus was as effective as the chewing gum that he tossed at Marvin Atapattu. Three wickets at 48.66 at an economy rate of 7.30 makes one wonder about the bowling depth in South African cricket.

Makhaya Ntini, after a successful Australian campaign showed a lot of early season rust. Not taking any wickets at an economy rate of 6.53 and still unable to bowl the slower ball. After 48 one-day internationals this inability has to be worked on or he is going to find himself the target of opposition batsmen.

In the batting department we faired even worse. Gary Kirsten keeps on dragging the ball back into the stumps. He only scored 58 runs at 19.33. Herschelle Gibbs had the privilege of scoring the first and only hundred of the tournament. A brilliant innings of 114 scored with patience and aggression must rate as one of his better knocks. This innings was overshadowed by his technique in the remaining matches. He continues to chase the wide one outside the off. He ended with 132 runs at an average of 26.4.

Jonty Rhodes will be very disappointed with his batting. One of the best sweepers in the game he struggled to get the sweep working and he will not be pleased with getting run out twice. His fielding however is as good as ever. Rhodes scored 80 runs at 20.0.

Coach Eric Simmons identified South Africa's batting as the major problem area. "The batsmen didn't adapt well to the conditions, making the same mistakes over and again, but there were lots of positives and we can learn from the experience and move forward."

Positives, yes there were.

The most important being the team spirit. Many sides would have crumbled during the final stages of the last match against Pakistan but the South African determination was once again evident. Even though they lost, it was also there for the final. So different from six months back.

Allan Donald was to many the South African player of the tournament. Bowling with the control of old, he proved that he has lost none of his guile. Experience plays a major role in cricket and he showed, in taking 10 wickets at 15.2, that even in losing pace he is still one of the best attack bowlers in the game. Hopefully Donald will be looked after to make sure he stays fit for the coming season and the World Cup.

Lance Klusener too was an inspiration. Nine wickets at 18.8 and an economy rate of 4.11 has once again proved what a good all-rounder he is. Not given the luxury, during the tournament, of a platform to launch his attacks from, showed a new side of Klusener batting with patience and confidence scoring 123 runs at an average of 61.5.

Mark Boucher (139 runs at 34.75) and Boeta Dippenaar (138 runs at 34.50) can also be well pleased with their early season form, both coming very close to taking the team to victory in the final. They also had to come to the crease under tremendous pressure and passed the test with flying colours.

Jacques Kallis, after showing so much early season form, will only just be happy with his tournament. At times he showed signs of an in form Kallis ending up with the most runs for South Africa, scoring 141 at a disappointing average of 28.20. He did however get bowled by one of the balls of the tournament when Waqar Younis found a gap between bat and pad. On an unfriendly pitch he also took five wickets at 29.6.

Various batting experiments were evident during the tournament and one that again proved to be the best is using Nicky Boje at the top of the order as the pinch hitter. In his career Boje has scored two hundreds and three fifties batting at either number three or four, scoring more than half his career runs at these positions and averaging 44.7. His overall average is 27.6.

With a long season ahead of them the South Africans have a lot of work to get through. Some of the problem areas are small and will be fine tuned while players on the fringes will be encouraged to work hard and fill the gaps that are becoming more evident.