The campaign of South Africa in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy was by far their worst ever in several years. Not even in a single game did the Proteas play like the favourites and as ironic as it may seem, they were ranked at the first position in the ICC Team Rankings.
Against an energetic Indian outfit at the Oval, the Proteas wore a jaded and tired look, and more specifically, played like a team terribly low on confidence.
With socio-political factors affecting the cricket board’s policy back home, it does seem that current head coach Russell Domingo is quite unsure about carrying on as the coach. It must be noted that Domingo’s contract soon comes to an end and till now, he hasn’t reapplied for the job.
Speaking to the press after South Africa’s exit, Domingo mentioned that now wasn’t the time to discuss his future as the coach.
“Players need to go away and think about it for a couple of days. Never good to make decisions when emotions are high, so once things have calmed down I suppose people need to sit down and think of a way forward once again. Take it from there. Now is not the time,” Domingo said.
“We’ve had two bad games here, it doesn’t make the side a bad side,” he added about the tournament. “There are always going to be questions asked until the side wins an event, wins these knock-out games, wins these big games, and rightly so. But there’s no magic wand. A lot of things have been tried, a lot of things have been discussed. A lot of people have been involved and unfortunately, the results at the moment are still the same.”
“The players are bitterly disappointed. I can tell you it’s not through lack of trying or lack of effort or commitment. Someone told me that India didn’t field at all for the last couple of days we try and field as much as we can. So it’s not through lack of effort. I’m just bitterly disappointed for the players. They’ve played some great cricket this year and sometimes life can be unfair. But you’ve got to make your own luck as well,” Domingo concluded.