'Now is a time for cool heads' – Arthur
Mickey Arthur has implored players and officials to maintain cool heads as they attempt to rebuild from a devastating Test series defeat to Australia
Alex Brown12-Mar-2009Mickey Arthur has implored players and officials to maintain cool heads asthey attempt to rebuild from a devastating Test series defeat to Australia.The South African coach was confident his side would quickly rebound fromback-to-back losses in Johannesburg and Durban, but warned that swift,radical change would serve only to destabilise a team that had beenundefeated in its 10 previous series.Within an hour of Australia closing out a 175-run victory in Kingsmead – aresult that sealed South Africa’s first Test series defeat since July 2006- the hosts announced the immediate axing of Neil McKenzie and Morne Morkel,and installed Ashwell Prince as captain; a decision they would laterrescind.The flurry of activity prompted murmurings as to whetherSouth Africa’s recently-installed convenor of selectors, Mike Procter, wasover-reacting to a rare set of defeats, but Arthur insisted rationalthinking would guide the side through the current tempest.”This is not a train smash,” Arthur said. “Now is a time for cool heads. Wehave to think clearly and rationally in terms of strategy and reflect on ourrecent performances and how we can improve on them. It sets you back alittle in the immediate term. But in the long-term, I think it mightactually do us some good. This will force players to sit down, reflect andfocus. We must now dig deep, and that goes for everyone, including Graeme(Smith) and myself.”Things have been hunky-dory for ten or so series and two years. Playerslike Morne Morkel, Paul Harris and even Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn havenever really felt what it’s like to lose a Test series. As strong as anycricketer is, I think they have to know that pain of losing to be complete.It is a real driving force for many great players. The nucleus of our squadis still there, and it’s a very strong one. I think we will bounce back fromthis in the not too distant future.”The decision to stand-down McKenzie from the third Test was perhaps notsurprising, given his failure to score a Test century in nine months, andhis underwhelming return of 223 runs at 24.77 in his past five Tests againstAustralia. Less expected was the move to drop Morkel, who, just two monthsprior, had formed part of a pace attack compared favourably by some pundits with the WestIndian line-up of the late 90s.Morkel struggled for consistency in Johannesburg and Durban – reflected inhis series return of six wickets at 49.83 – but aged just 24, and blessedwith the intimidating combination of height and pace, the right-armer isviewed as a future leader of the South African attack. Arthur was adamantMorkel remained a key part of South Africa’s plans, despite his omission from the Cape Town Test.”He will be disappointed to be out of our squad, and I hope he uses thistime to reflect on where he is as a bowler, and where he wants to be,”Arthur said. “He will be an integral part of this team going forward, andhopefully in the not too distant future. He just needs to get himself towhere he needs to be.”There was a lot of emotion in that dressing room after the game. Theplayers were really hurting. The series was obviously gone, and one or twoof them knew they would be left out of the next Test. When you lose, thereare consequences and in this case it meant losing one or two players whohave been integral to our performances in the past year or so. Graeme and Ispoke to them strongly, but calmly, about the need to reflect on this resultand back strongly so we don’t experience something like that again. It was afirm chat, but certainly not as hard as the one we had after the Wanderers.”Arthur called upon the South Africans to duplicate the response of theAustralians to their shock 2005 Ashes defeat. Ricky Ponting’s squad wereundefeated in 21 matches – a sequence that included a worldrecord-equalling 16 consecutive victories – immediately after the final Test at The Oval toquash speculation they were a team on the wane.”We have the players to still be at the top of the game, there’s no doubtabout it,” he said. “Hopefully, this will build the character of the team.We can look at what Australia did in the Ashes in 2005 and see that, afterone bad series result, just how strongly they came back in the period afterthat.”We are in the same position going into Cape Town as Australia was goinginto Sydney. This is important for us. There is no such thing as a deadrubber for our team.”