IND vs SA | You don't replace that kind of experience overnight, says CSA chief Thabang Moroe
After a hammering from India in the second Test match, Cricket South Africa chief Thabang Moroe has backed the young Proteas team. Moroe asked the fans to be patient as he requests them to acknowledge that it's always tough to take on a top team like India and especially with a team in transition.
With the big guns hanging their boots, the South African team is currently going through a rocky phase. After crashing out of the World Cup in the round-robin stage of the tournament, CSA took some drastic steps such as dropping the traditional coach position to replace it with a football-style manager. This change in the top tier of the team has just made things worse.Â
"It was always going to be a difficult challenge taking on the top team in the world - certainly under their own conditions - in India at a time when we have introduced a new team structure," Moroe said in a press statement. "In the past two years we have had to bid farewell to some of the great names of international cricket such as AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn who between them played nearly 450 Test matches for the Proteas. You don't replace that kind of experience overnight and we need to give a new generation time to settle," Moroe was quoted by ESPN Cricinfo.
The Proteas haven't been able to win a Test match in India since February 2010, there last win coming in Nagpur where they won by an innings. Since then there only non-loss being a game that was washed out four years ago in Bangalore. The performance of South African team has been constantly declining after their first innings heroics with the bat in the first Test match in Vizag. Since then the top order has been there prime concern as they have collapsed quicker than a melting ice cream, leaving the middle order with a bit too much to do.Â
"These things take time and I am confident that we will already see improvement in our next Test series when England are our visitors during the festive season," Moroe said. "I am sure that our supporters will rally behind them on home turf. These are, in fact, exciting times for South African cricket with new names and faces coming to the fore. Our talent pipeline has produced the likes of Aiden Markram, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Zubayr Hamza over the last few years and our development systems are clearly in good shape.
"There is a huge incentive on our young players to put pressure on the incumbents. There is nothing like good competition for places that brings out the best in all."