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.