What disaster?

I have been thinking quite a lot about this whole T20 World Cup "disaster" for the South African side and reading all the negative comments that have been going around in the various media channels.

Everyone is dragging up the whole "chokers" tag again and wandering around with the whole "I told you so attitude".

Game 1 - we played India - lost by 14 runs
Game 2 - we played Afghanistan - won 59 runs
Game 3 - we played New Zealand - won by 13 runs
Game 4 - we played England - got thumped by 39 runs
Game 5 - we played Pakistan - lost by 11 runs

We had 1 bad game against England and then two average games against India and Pakistan. The difference between the two sides was effectively one over.

Yes it irritates the shit out of me that Morne Morkel bowls no-balls in ODI or T20 cricket. Yes it irritates the shit out of me that we battle to pace ourselves to score at 10 an over from the word go. It also irritates the shit out of me that somebody would dare to double step Dale Steyn and slug him 90 metres for a six... but these things happen and in T20 it is going to happen on a regular basis.

With due respect if we took on any of those sides in a test or full 50 over ODI match up, our win ratio would be 75% or higher if playing at home and probably 60% or higher playing away from home.

We need to take a look at what we take away from this event:

• Morne Morkel is not an ODI / T20 bowler - let's not treat him as such. Let him mature as a test bowler
• There is a serious argument to let Johan Botha become the dedicated ODI / T20 captain. He has shown he understands the format of the game - let's use his knowledge
• In T20 cricket, where are we going to use JP Duminy? He's a great middle order batter but is he the big hitter that we need with four overs to go?
• I'm a Herschelle Gibbs fan but at some point he needs to deliver the goods

We have to be a little realistic about what this tournament says about SA cricket. It's not the end of the world - hell it is hardly a black mark on our record - its just that we need to understand what we want to do with this T20 side.

Best cricket captain in the game?

I was watching South Africa versus New Zealand in the T20 World Cup and it got me thinking about who the best captains in world cricket are at the moment.

I think one of the things about a good captain is that sometimes their skills and attributes are overshadowed by the quality of the players in their team.

Here was the list I came up with and would be curious to get feedback from our readers:

Daniel Vettori: The New Zealand captain is without question one of the most astute players in the game. He's never really had a quality team underneath him but he has made the most of the opportunities when they have presented themselves and in ODI and T20 cricket, Vettori has been surprisingly competitive.

Ricky Ponting: "Punter" inherited a top quality team but it is not easy to make a quality side "gel" and become one of the most successful units in world cricket for the better part of a decade. His competitive nature and his never say die attitude make him one of the best in the world.

Graeme Smith: Is Smith a good captain? This is one the questions that rolls around in my head regularly. There is no question he is an awesome cricketer and the kind of guy you would want in your corner in almost every fight. But is he tactically astute and can he think on his feet in the way that somebody like Johan Botha (his deputy / stand-in ODI captain) can?

Forget the whole "chokers" tage which gets bandied around. Every now and then I get the sense that Smith "innovates" for the wrong reasons or doesn't know how to change the gameplan when things are looking questionable.

Dunno - thoughts on who the best current captains are in world cricket and who are the more tactically astute players we should be watching in the next few years?

T20 World Cup - first 24 hours

Admit it, if you were a cricket fan you were intrigued to see how Afghanistan played today in their first outing in the T20 World Cup...

Apart from that first clown who came out and wanted to smash the ball to all corners of the park, I actually thought they played quite well against a more than useful Indian side.

(On a side note - how nice was that ground that they played at today? Very scenic!)

Noor Ali and Asghar Stanikzai actually played really sensible cricket in the middle parts of the innings - very few stupid shots. They ran the singles when they were there and they hit had no issues taking a crack at the Indian spinners when they saw the chance was there.

115 was never going to be enough against a side that included Dhoni, Ghambir, Pathan and Yuvraj Singh but it could have been far worse.

So what's happened so far:

• New Zealand have beaten Sri Lanka in a close match up
• West Indies have thumped Ireland but looked really bad doing it
• India beat Afghanistan

Pakistan actually look quite dangerous in this competition and they might not be worth a punt at 10/1... but remember T20 cricket is an absolute lottery.