Joking aside, SA do have a strong team, but like you say i cant think of a weak SA team sent to a world cup. In the past they have been very conservative in their style of play and outlook in all forms of cricket. Being happy not to lose a game rather than trying to win it.

If the Saffers play a bit like the Aussies in that respect (being positive) , then i cant even see choking coming into the equation . Beacuse they should be good enough to see everyone else off.

Only thing is, i cant stand Graeme Smith the bloke is a ****!

__________________
Mark.

Geez...a lot of people don't like the guy here in SA either. He's stereotypical KES boy (the school he came from).

But I do think that the people's feelings towards the current captain will change multiple times both for the worst and for the best over the course of his career.

However I must point out that South Africa will not win the World Cup if Graeme Smith doesn't come to the party in a very big way. Though we had two solid ODI series wins against two of the 'favourites'...I'm sceptical about looking at these series as indication of anything...since with Pakistan and to a lesser degree, India...you never know what team will pitch up...unfortunatley it seemed that in both ODI series, the match-winning Indian and Pakistani teams did not pitch up.

Yes, their conservative approach has been the problem, and the last time around, Pollock's poor captaincy. Great player without a doubt, but one could see that he did not connect with his teammates. Smith, of course, is the complete opposite; if anything, he connects too much, but that's what SA needed. They now look more like a team than at any time in the past.

While I don't harbour any such personal dislike towards the big man, he was not one of my favourite characters either. His constant movement and talking on the field used to annoy me as it did thousands of others. But that was until I got and saw the '438' DVD. It is a 3-disc special edition with the final match extended to the full ball-by-ball 6 hours. In addition, there are interviews with and reactions of the players and that was when I realised how important Graeme Smith was to rest of the team. Whether we like him or not, he has held the team together and plays the leader role to the hilt....something guys like Cronje and Pollock never did and something that a highly talented team like the South Africans need to avoid another series of choking at a vital time.

Agreed. If the "good" Pakistan team turn up in the Windies, they could beat anyone. If the "bad" team turn up expect a great shock.

Regarding Smith, you kind of get the feeling that he annoys the opposition that much that they get spurred on to play better against SA.

__________________
Mark.

He certainly annoys the opposition, but whether that really makes them play better is very debatable. From what I have seen in recent times, the opposite seems to be true. But, I don't mind Smith; at least he is playing for his country unlike another utterly detestable, arrogant #%*#?! South African who pretends that he is an Englishman - Kevin Pietersen. Pity that it wasn't Brett Lee instead of McGrath who bowled that ball.

Its funny, as i have a South African friend who also cant stand Pieterson.

How i laughed when Pieterson tonked SA all over the place a couple of winters ago (mainly because my mate said Pieterson was c**p and would fail under pressure).

__________________
Mark.

I don't care how many times Pitersen tonks anybody, but he still looks like a cheap cardboard character from a straight-to-DVD B-movie with his open-mouthed strutting arrogance. Your friend is not the only one who dislikes him; I know a lot of people in the UK who feel the same. 'KP' is the only reason many of us want England to lose & go out of this World Cup; I feel sorry for guys like Collingwood to be saying this, but there it is. In my mind, Pietersen is the cricketing equivalent of Lord Haw-Haw.

And would you class Allan Joseph Lamb, Anthony William Greig, Robin Arnold Smith who were born in South Africa the same as Pietersen?.

And Douglas Robert Jardine who was born in Bombay India, the same as Pietersen, and what about Nasser Hussain who was born in Madras - the same as Pietersen?.
Where do you stop?, the US have adopted tennis players - the UK adopted Lenox Lewis from Canada - so what?.

__________________
Ern

I freely admit that in general I do not like sporting turncoats who 'move' for personal reasons, but sometimes a players obnoxious personality and the reasons for the move adds to the dislike. A gifted soccer player like Ryan Giggs could have claimed to be English at the start of his career, but he did not. In Pietersen's case, his decision to leave because of the 'quota system' somehow rubbed me the wrong way. I don't like SA's quota system, but that does not mean that one has to walk so completely out of one's country. It was not as though Pietersen was in cricketing limbo like Hick was some 15 years earlier. But above all, there is something horribly obnoxious and irritating about Pietersen's body language that makes me want to throw up. To think that he plays in the same team and alongside guys like Cook, Collingwood or Hoggard somehow does not seem right.

I don't seem to be alone in feeling that way. Less than a month ago, I was chatting to a (very 'local') shopowner who is also a cricket fan. Out of the blue he told me that he wished that England get knocked out of this WC solely because of Pietersen. I am not exaggerating, but he is less popular than you think.

I totally agree.

If you put Graeme Smith next to K Pietersen, all of a sudden Smith starts to resemble a class act.

I don't care that he changed teams, but the guy has been whining for the past 3 years, come now he is playing professional cricket...can't get that chip off his shoulder.

Thank goodness, K Pietersen is not in the SA squad.