Proteas coach urges senior players to step up

Proteas coach Ottis Gibson has revealed that he would like to see the senior players take on more responsibility than they have so far in the Cricket World Cup.

Gibson’s charges have so far endured a tough start to their campaign which has yielded no victory in three outings, and are already staring down the barrel with the tournament not even in the halfway mark.

In the three matches played, only once – in an unsuccessful chase against Bangladesh – did they cross the 250-mark, and the likes of Quinton de Kock, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy and David Miller – All boasting north of 100 caps – have done no more than register starts without kicking on.

Speaking ahead of Monday’s crucial clash against the West Indies, the Barbarian said it was up to the seniors to carry the team.

“I think if you look at it, and I’ve said this to the players also, when you look at World Cup and teams that win World Cups, the best players or the seniors are the ones that carry the team, and the youngsters, obviously they fill in and do their job as well.

“And so far the seniors haven’t really taken as much of a leadership role as I would expect, as we’re going to need.

“So we’ve had that conversation around our best players performing. We’ve had a couple of fifties, but we’ve not had any rdeal significant hundreds. We’ve got players that are used to scoring hundreds.

Ottis Gibson

South Africa are one of only two teams in the tournament yet to bag a point, with minnows Afghanistan the other side sitting in nought.

They come up against a Windies side reeling from defeat to defending champions Australia in their last outing.

The Proteas are expected to be without fast bowler Lungi Ngidi, who missed Wednesday’s defeat to India after pulling a hamstring against Bangladesh.

The speedster is likely to return in time for Saturday’s game against Afghanistan.