I am not one to brag, in fact I rather despise braggarts. They have a condescending manner in which they want everyone to know how great they are and more often than not it comes across in rather poor taste.
It is however time for me to recognise the achievements of the Proteas.
As a passionate rugby person, cricket doesn’t often bring about the same passion and excitement, probably due to the fact that it isn’t a contact sport and I was never very good at it.
Currently the media, pundits and many individuals are swooning over the Proteas, the bowling of Dale Steyn, the batting of Jaques Kallis, Hashim Amla and the fact that Graeme Smith has now achieved 100 Tests as captain.
The funny thing is this run of form started more than five years ago.
Since an away Test series loss in Sri Lanka in 2006, South Africa have completed 22 Test series and only lost one.
If you break it down into unbeaten series runs, South Africa had a very good run between the series loss in Sri Lanka during 2006 and the return series versus Australia at home in January 2009.
During that period they completed a run of 10 series unbeaten and winning nine of them. Since the home series loss versus Australia in 2009, South Africa have now had an unbeaten series run of 11, with seven wins.
When one looks back at the history of South African cricket during this period, it isn’t the ranking that will be revered, but rather the record of series wins.
The question remains though: Why has South Africa been so successful over the past five years?
Batting
The entry of Hashim Amla, the development of AB de Villiers and solid dependable performances up front from Graeme Smith has given Kallis more confidence in his batting line-up, which in the past was always perceived to be brittle.
With these four batsmen regularly featuring in the top ten batting rankings it has changed the fortunes of South African cricket.
Where in the past you needed to get Smith and Kallis to effectively roll them over, you now have a top seven which can and often does deliver on any surface.
Bowling
Dale Steyn made a rather mediocre debut in 2004, but when he made his much improved return in 2006 he has been at the top for almost five years.
South Africa did experiment quite a bit with different bowlers and when Mkaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock eventually retired, they struggled to get a solid bowling line-up together.
However, the arrival of Morne Morkel (who slowly but steadily improved) and Vernon Philander who came onto the scene with a bang, has now given the Proteas a seam bowling attack capable of taking 20 wickets with regularity.
Not to be forgotten, Jaques Kallis now revels in his new role as partnership breaker. No longer does he bowl more than 5-6 overs per innings, but his more managed approach as partnership breaker has brought him a new and improved strike rate over the past 18 months or so.
Fielding
The Proteas have always prided themselves on their outfield capabilities, and there aren’t many teams that boast a better slip cordon than Smith, Kallis and Alviro Petersen.
Leadership
Few can doubt the importance of Graeme Smith as a leader. Not the most popular captain around, his brashness was often mistaken for arrogance and overconfidence in the early parts of his captaincy.
He is often seen as a conservative leader, not always willing to take enough risks either when it comes to declarations or field placing, but then the DNA of a South African doesn’t permit us to be maverick all that often.
Smith leads from the front, he doesn’t expect his players to do anything he isn’t prepared to do himself and in my view, that gung ho, shoulder to the grindstone attitude was needed to rid South Africa of the legacy and environment they found themselves in after the Hansie Cronje saga.
Mentality and approach
When Gary Kirsten was appointed the new coach of the Proteas, one of his first goals were to rid the South African mindset of its stoic, militaristic approach and free the structures within the Proteas to the point where individuals were given responsibility for their own actions.
Players are now given programs for fitness and preparation and it is up to them to ensure they perform at the required levels. They will therefore take full accountability if they fail.
He also wanted the Proteas to change their methodology by focusing on the processes during the game and not the outcome, effectively taking away the dogged inflexible methodology that has become part and parcel of South African sport in general.
Thinking outside the box is encouraged rather than frowned upon and flexibility in the match situation has become the mantra.
It also doesn’t hurt to now have ex-internationals such as Donald and Kirsten to impart their knowledge and experience onto the Proteas, something that wasn’t possible previously.
Where to from here?
There is still a lot that can improve in this Proteas team. South Africa is not known for their class spin options, Imran Tahir, Robin Peterson and even JP Duminy are all good first class spin bowlers, but very unlikely to command a spot in any other international cricket team.
Depth and exposure to international cricket is something that is an ongoing process and although Kirsten wants to play his best match day XI wherever possible, it is important to ensure the replacements are up to standard, come injury or retirement.
There is a balance in this cricket team, the players all seem to understand that, and overall they seem a happy bunch proud to play for their country and one another.
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