Proteas captain Aiden Markram talks to the press ahead of South Africa’s first T20 World Cup match against Sri Lanka.
South Africa takes on Sri Lanka on Monday at 16:30 SAST and Proteas captain Markram spoke to the media about his side’s chances.
We covered probable squads, tactics and more in our preview of the match.
Below you will find the full transcript of the Aiden press conference which took place on Sunday.
[Reporter:]
How do you look at your chances in this World Cup?
[Aiden Markram:]
I’m feeling quietly confident. Obviously, it’s a World Cup. There’s some really good teams here, but we feel that if we’re on our form and playing at our best ability, we’re able to compete with anyone here and beat anyone here. So, we’re putting a lot of focus on that in terms of putting focus on ourselves and seeing ultimately where it gets us. But certainly, here to lift the trophy. I’m sure every other team is also here to lift the trophy. So, we’ll see at the end of it, but quietly confident that we have what it takes.
[Reporter:]
Can you look back at the time when you first got the captaincy for the Proteas in 2018 and you were yourself a youngster and the team was missing quite a few players? Just that experience when you lost both the series to India at home. How was that experience like as a captain back then?
[Aiden Markram:]
Yeah, it was fantastic to be honest. Completely unexpected, obviously, getting the captaincy then, but the learning that was able to take place from going through that experience of that series was great. Obviously at the time it was not ideal, having lost badly, but you look at it in hindsight and you almost become grateful for that. So, like I mentioned, I learned quite a bit through that series and had some really awesome senior players guiding me while I was out there as well, which sort of helps you grow a lot as a captain and as a player.
[Reporter:]
Could you just expand on being, as you said, being grateful for that experience? Because I would expect somebody to almost consider it as a chastening experience, maybe even regret taking it so early.
[Aiden Markram:]
No, never. I’d never regret taking captaincy for your national team. But like I mentioned, at the moment it was obviously not the best series for us as a team, but if you look at it in hindsight, that’s why I’m grateful, because I was able to learn.
[Reporter:]
Yeah. Five years later, when you took over the captaincy, how different are you as a captain from then?
[Aiden Markram:]
I feel slightly different. You learn as you prod along and find out things about yourself that help you, ideally, be a better captain for the team. But I haven’t gone too far away from my basic values as a person and try to keep that close to me over the time. And you fine-tune your way around things as you get more experience. So, it has helped me, although since then, since 2018, and even getting to a tournament like this, you’re still going to take lots of learnings from it.
[Reporter:]
One or two big lessons you might have learnt over this period as a captain?
[Aiden Markram:]
Yeah, I mean back then I was quite young, so being able to tell the difference between being a batter and a captain. So, when you’re a batter, you’re just a batter for the team. You can’t captain in any way while you’re batting. So that was one massive learning. And then naturally dealing with stuff off the field in a more open-minded and calmer way. I think when you’re young, you can get defensive quite quickly. But you sort of realize that it comes with the territory. It comes with the responsibility of being a captain and taking that on board as best you can.
[Reporter:]
There’s no World Cup where South Africa do not go in as one of the favourites to win. But not having won a world title so far, what kind of pressure does it add to you whenever you go into a new competition?
[Aiden Markram:]
I mean, for the time being, we’re trying to achieve something we haven’t achieved before. So, I don’t think that brings too much extra pressure. I think it brings a bit more excitement and energy to the team. But we’d love to get that first elusive one, of course. And like I mentioned earlier, I believe that we have the team to do so. But I don’t think it adds too much more pressure. But guys are definitely really hungry to get that first one.
[Reporter:]
Just coming to just about the game tomorrow, a lot of unknowns in terms of conditions, both on the pitch and the outfield. How do you prepare for just completely new grounds?
[Aiden Markram:]
Yeah, it’s always interesting. Obviously, on the day, I have to assess really quickly. And from there, sort of develop plans and tactics that can hopefully help us do well. But if you look at it from a bigger picture point of view, it’s quite an exciting day. I never thought you’d be playing in a World Cup in New York, so it’s something to be really excited about. From a conditions point of view, we’ll have to assess really quickly and hopefully, that’s enough for us to play some good cricket tomorrow.
[Reporter:]
Also, early morning starts are quite rare for, almost never in T20 cricket. How do you approach that differently?
[Aiden Markram:]
Yeah, it is different. We’re used to mostly playing in the evenings. But I suppose we’ve gotten a bit of a routine since we’ve been here of waking up early, having things to do together as a team early in the morning. So, I think by now we’re pretty used to waking up early. And I think because you’re at a World Cup, naturally once you wake up in the morning, you’ll be switched on immediately because of the excitement and the energy around the World Cup.
[Reporter:]
Just finally, it’s a bit weird that you’re not training at the actual venue before the match. Any reasons?
[Aiden Markram:]
I’ve got no idea, to be honest. It’s a beautiful training facility and we’re allowed to do our skills work here. We’re going to get to the stadium a bit later and run around, do some fielding, have a look at the pitch and the conditions and stuff like that.
[Reporter:]
You would have preferred to be there, right?
[Aiden Markram:]
It’s hard to say because I’m not sure what’s there, because I haven’t been. This facility is incredible to be honest, so we don’t mind training here either.
