“My reputation grows with every failure.”

So said the playwright George Bernard Shaw.

Shaw grew up in early 20^th century Ireland, so it’s fair to say his knowledge of cricket was probably fairly limited.

But every so often his words resonate through the game.

Mostly when South Africa are involved in a One-Day International.

The root of the issue can be traced back to a balmy afternoon in Birmingham on June 17, 1999.

With just a single needed from three balls the Proteas had one foot in the World Cup final.

But as Lance Klusener scrambled up the pitch Allan Donald froze, and South Africa spluttered, coughed, choked and finally died a death that has haunted them ever since.

Four years later on home turf they had the chance to exorcise their demons. But a horrendous miscalculation of the Duckworth/Lewis rate saw Shaun Pollock’s team crash out of their own party at the first hurdle.

2007 promised more. A strong South African team muscled their way to another semi-final date with Australia.

But they collapsed to 149 all out, a sad inevitability hanging over the match as once again the scent of triumph caused panic in the ranks.

Now thoughts are turning to the subcontinent ahead of this year’s tournament, and last week South Africa gave us a preview of what we can expect.

Chasing 191 to win against India in the second ODI they cruised to 152-4 in the 32^nd over when captain Graham Smith was bowled for 77.

Six wickets fell for 37 runs, India won by one run and once again South Africa had choked.

It is often said of great teams that they simply do not know how to lose.

South Africa, when the pressure is on, do not believe they can win.

Reputations are easy to make but not so easy to shake.

First morning of the fourth Test on Test Match Special.

Geoff Boycott: “I can’t see any way England are going to win this.”
Jonathan Agnew: “We’ve only had 12 minutes!”
Geoff Boycott: “Well, I’m supposed to know what I’m talking about. That’s why I’m the expert and you’re the commentator.”

England went on to win the match by an innings and 157 runs.

Boycott’s argument was based on the supposed flatness of the pitch, but it smacked of a five-year-old child waking up on Christmas morning, rushing downstairs, ripping open his present to find a Playstation 3, jamming the scart socket into the back of the TV, finding that nothing appears on the screen and then stamping his feet and screaming.

Three days later he has completed Gran Turismo 5, eaten too many mince pies and learned absolutely nothing.

AS the third day of the final test in Sydney began I drifted off to sleep, the dulcet tones of Simon Mann hastening my journey along the winding road to slumbertown.

An hour or so later I awoke to the news that Alastair Cook was out for 99, caught at short leg by Hughes.

In my snoozy state I huffed and cursed into my pillow. 99. Oh unknowable hell.

Of course the record books will tell us that Cook survived the phantom wicket and went on to score his third century of the series.

If Cook had indeed been given out one short of the landmark, England would still have built up a healthy first innings lead and history would still remember one of the more extraordinary runs of form by an English batsman with eyes like Bambi and a talent for the saxophone.

Kevin Pietersen went through a run of giving his wicket away in the 90s, as did Andrew Flintoff, and they were roundly criticised.

More often than not Flintoff perished in the pursuit of quick runs with just the tail for company.

One of my most vivid memories of him is his wry smile as he walked from the field holding his bat the wrong way up. It was a smile that said: “Meh.”

Getting out in the 90s is annoying but 90 is still a lot of runs. Getting out for 99 is even more annoying but it is one run short of 100.

In the words of David Brent, you’ve got to look at the whole pie.

Wicketkeepers opening the batting in limited overs matches. Why?

It seems to stem from Adam Gilchrist doing the job so successfully for Australia for so many years.

But according to Steve Waugh and lazy cricket journalists he was a “once in a lifetime cricketer.”

Now it has reached the point where being able to open the batting in a one day match has to be a prerequisite for a keeper.

The ruthless jettisoning of batsman-wicketkeeper Steve Davies in favour of wicketkeeper-batsman Matt Prior for the World Cup opens up a spot alongside Strauss at the top of the order.

Apparently the slot will be filled by Prior. Because he’s a wicketkeeper. And that is where wicketkeepers go.

Still, England once went into a World Cup with Warwickshire off-spinner Neil Smith opening the batting. He vomited on the pitch.

So we should count our blessings.

Hello. Welcome to ‘Morning everyone…’

This is a cricket blog. About cricket. It makes no further claims than that.

This cricket blog has been a long-time admirer of other cricket blogs, and thought it would jump on the bandwagon. Apparently there’s a rather important test series starting on the other side of the world.

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