Upon my hurried return upon collecting my daughter from day-care, I somehow magically stumbled into my house and managed to switch my TV on just as Imran Tahir was pleading with umpire Billy Bowden to send Aussie tail-ender, Pat Cummins to the showers. The desperate appeal was duly rejected, however it was an extremely close-call as the third umpire took his time to judge exactly how many millimeters of the ball was missing Cummins’ leg-stump.

This heart-breaking close-call was poetic as it summed up not only the test, but the entire test series as well as the preceding one-day internationals during the Australians’ short, successful visit to our beautiful shores. The first day-night encounter saw the Proteas being humiliated by Michael Clark and his Wombat warriors, only for our boys to totally redeem themselves through the brave batting effort of Juan “Rusty” Theron during the second one-day international. The whole of the SA cricket fraternity breathed a collective sigh of relief at the prospect of teaching the Aussies a long-overdue lesson during the third, last and decisive pajama match-up. But as if being dragged kicking and screaming to a horror movie you’ve seen too many times to remember, the shockingly familiar scenes unfold one by one. The spectacularly overrated opening batsmen fail to cement a decent platform up front; the stupendously experienced, world-class, all-rounder plays his most amateurish shot onto his own stumps and the pressure on the lower-middle order becomes too much to bare.

Now please don’t misunderstand me, this blog is not aimed at explaining what exactly is amiss with our beloved cricket side, it is merely a tool to help me vent my frustrations. But why am I SO annoyed? Why can’t I simply take these humiliating losses on the chin and look forward to the next over-inflated promise of victory? The short and sweet answer is that I’m tired of empty pledges. The longer version is that I’ve become a sobering realist and my eyes have opened to a new truth, a truth that has little to with child-like expectations and all to do with the limitations of core members of the national team. Gary Kirsten might be a gifted cricketing brain and he has surrounded himself with a sound management team in Allan Donald and Paddy Upton, but he has to make tough decisions and in double-quick time.

Firstly, dependable and experienced campaigners like Mark Boucher, Ashwell Prince and Greame Smith have served their country well, but they offer very little more to the Protea cause. Smith has obvious shortcomings and is struggling to find the faintest type of form, while Boucher can no longer offer the desperately needed cover as top-class number six batsmen, who (in the past) provided the watershed between the lower middle order and the tail. If Smith’s form is lacking then Prince’s form is non-existent. Add to this his incredibly slow scoring rate, and he suddenly becomes a scarcely affordable liability.

Furthermore, our bowling is erratic at best and it seems painfully obvious that Steyn remains our only strike-bowler and we appear desperately wanting when he misfires. Morne Morkel has matured vastly as a Curtly Ambrose-like fast bowler, with the seemingly added advantage of ‘making” batsmen play at deliveries they normally would have left well alone. He unfortunately still leeks too many runs when the need for keeping to strict, conservative line and length is required. Finally, Kirsten showed guts in allowing Jacques Rudolph in from the Kolpac-cold, but the lefty still seems quite a bit more at ease at number three than opening the innings.

These are but some of the serious issues the new coaching contingent have to address and more than likely will if their jobs are matter of urgency to them. If we are fair and realistic (and sometimes we’re both), we will allow them time to take these scenarios in hand and make the necessary adjustments. If however they ignore these warning signs and carry on in the same manner, they will soon walk the path previously trodden by men like Woolmer, Simons, Arthur and Van Zyl.