Black Caps, Semi Final Place at Stake?

Rassie Talks Truth - and Beer Shops?

    Highlights of the tournament so far include every victory by the Netherlands and Afghanistan, the power batting from South Africa, the return to form of Australia after a dismal start, the complete command of the Indian team and now, today’s press conference by Rassie van der Dussen.

    On a day which saw Cricket South Africa release a statement of obsequious and irrelevant jingoism, van der Dussen spoke with care, consideration and humility about the difficulties the team have encountered over the last three years. And how difficult they have been to overcome, without going into gory details.

    “The situations we faced in the past four years, whether it be COVID, Black Lives Matter, SJN, various political stories that we've had to manage as a team, they’ve pulled us together,” van der Dussen said.

    “There’s definitely something different in this team. Of course, when you're in it, I suppose you just feel it. We're blessed in a sense that we're in a great space now. We've had to deal with quite a lot of controversy over the last three years, so that's really put us in good stead.”

    Van der Dussen, like all of us, was unaware of Siya Kolisi’s unprompted call of support for the Proteas at the Springboks OR Tambo arrival while he was speaking, but he was entirely comfortable and honest talking about the cynicism and doubt many cricket followers experience at World Cups after 24 years of disappointment.

    “You realise that there's fans who’ve been really scarred by previous performances, and you can't really criticize them for feeling that way. Criticism comes from a place of hurt, they’ve seen that movie before. But personally, and for most of the people in our squad and management team, we haven't lived that. It's not part of us as a team,” van der Dussen said.

    The Maharashstra Cricket Association Stadium would never have been approved by the ICC Technical Committee as World Cup venue in any other country. It looks terrific on television (which is important, admittedly) but it is half built, depressingly inaccessible and far too full of its own self-importance.

    It’s been a miserable experience so far with no prospect of an improvement on match day against New Zealand tomorrow. The press-box is a make-shift, temporary thing with toilet trucks parked outside.

    Back to Rassie: Has he been cast in the thankless, ‘dirty work’ role? Batting time and overs, seeing off the dangerous new ball, sacrificing a sexy scoring rate for the benefit of the team? Setting things up for Klaasen and Miller to butcher the bowling in the final ten overs? Thankless but vital task?

    “Me, Quin and Temba often joke about it, saying the reason Klaasen and the guys get millions at IPL is because they can come in and hit sixes at the back. But it's a role that needs to be done, and from my side and other guys as well, we're really happy to be doing it.

    “It's amazing to see what you can achieve when it doesn't matter who gets the credit, or when you don't care who gets the credit, for getting the win or getting over the line or putting in a good performance. There's a real sense of that in our team. If that's going to help us win matches and win the World Cup, then I'll be happy not to be thanked for it.”

    Plenty of serious cricket today, because I love Rassie so much, but just time to mention that the fancy bars and ‘lounges’ which adorn Pune are not the budget traveller’s only option for a cold sundowner. You just need to know where to look – the ‘Beer Shops’ are not on the High Street.

    Finally, may I introduce you to Jivek. He is 16-years-old (but looks younger) and is on hand to open my room for me at any time of day and night following a breakdown in the mighty Hotel Solitaire’s key-card system, of which they were very proud. I love the mighty Solitaire. I will be sad to leave it, and Jivek. He may be sorry to see me leave, too, after transference this evening of a portion of your generous coffee and subscriber cash. Thank you.