Given the recent boardroom woes in South African cricket and the Junior Proteas finishing a poor eighth at the U19 World Cup held here, it would be a step in the right direction to take a few positives from Bangladesh’s blueprint, writes Alasdair Fraser.

Apart from the ugly scenes that followed Bangladesh’s impressive three-wicket win, nothing can be taken away from their performance. Both teams had a part to play in the heated exchanges, though, but you could see the frustration and growing anger coming from India.

It’s amazing to see how such a cash-strapped nation, with limited playing resources and a relatively smaller player pool to choose from, can achieve a massive result by beating cricket’s ‘Big Brother’. 

The India U19 side has an embarrassment of riches, with a coaching set-up the envy of most senior cricket teams, huge player depth and well-documented access to funds that most can only dream of.

The South African U19s have been dismal over the past few years. The fact that Lawrence Mahatlane was ‘happy’ with finishing eighth is akin to celebrating mediocrity at its finest. Sorry, but it’s unacceptable to be happy with losing to Afghanistan and beating Canada and UAE – both minnows of the game.

The Junior Proteas were always going to be thwarted in the playoffs by a Bangladesh outfit that gave India problems in the Asia Cup final five months ago. But given the excellent schools cricket we have in this country; it’s not acceptable to believe finishing eighth out of 13 teams is OK.

It would be interesting to see what debrief, or post-tournament report comes out from this. Since being crowned champions in 2014, the Junior Proteas have finished 11th (2016), fifth (2018), and eighth. Not very good, considering a good chunk of the players in our domestic scene featured in 2016 and 2018.

The microscopic lens into the current set-up is even more introspective when one of the glaring omissions from that SA U19 squad was Ruan Terblanche, who recently struck 323 not out in a recent friendly.

RUAN TERBLANCHE: I LEARNT MORE ABOUT STRUCTURING A LONG INNINGS

Or the lack of ability when our batsmen are faced with facing spin bowlers. The latter reminds me of when South Africa were readmitted to world cricket in 1991. Our senior batsmen were bamboozled by spin bowlers in the first couple of years. Three decades later and it’s worse!  

But it would be unwise to dwell on the past. There is a new development in the background of our cricket – one that has the potential to change the path of a ship destined for a mighty iceberg.

We are seeing encouraging signs from the Proteas ODI squad. There is fresh blood in our team with a few old heads in the mix. Mark Boucher the coach must be afforded the same respect given to him during his days as Mark Boucher the player. It’s a tightrope he is currently walking on – one that was created long before he joined the coaching set-up.

Already we have seen performances from the new crop of players and the T20 series against England and Australia becomes even more important with a view to the World Cup in Australia later this year.

The Proteas have enough T20 game time against the Big Three in the coming months to warrant a decent enough introspection into the youthful state of our game to be able to make the right team selections for that World Cup. For now, that should be the only focus.  

But it would be a massive step in the right direction if CSA are to make good on their commitment to Vision 2023 and unpack the merits of what Bangladesh’s youth cricket structure has been able to achieve with the limited resources they have. 

South Africa has unbelievable sporting talent that hasn’t even been tapped into, while many players slip through the system through flawed selections, and it’s time for that to end.

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Photo: ICC