Maketa: Technical team willing to take responsibility for Proteas shortcomings

The match in Chester Le Street, is a dead rubber for the Proteas who were effectively dumped out of semi-final contention against Pakistan at Lords last weekend.

For the Lankans however, who can still sneak into the top four, it is a must win game.

The Proteas have beaten the 1996 world champions in eight out of their last ten matches but their horrendous showing at this tournament will give Dimuth Karunaratne’s men hope. 

“It is difficult to pinpoint what has gone wrong,” Proteas assistant coach, Malibongwe Maketa said. 

“We hoped our bowlers stayed on their feet but with the injuries it has been tough, we can look at at our batting and we have not batted well,” he said. 

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With nothing but pride left to play for, one would think the games against Sri Lanka and Australia in Manchester would give fringe members of the squad a chance to play but Maketa does not see it that way.

“We don’t look at our squad that way, we came here with the intention of winning and we will play the best team possible based on the conditions,” Maketa said. 

“It is not about giving guys a chance, we want to finish strong, we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to the tournament,” he added.

Maketa said the current technical unit was prepared to face up to the inquest into the team’s performance by Cricket South Africa.

“We have not performed as well as we would have liked, we will have to suffer the consequences,” Maketa said.

“We are willing to take responsibility, hopefully we will be judged on more than this, this is a once-off tournament. A lot of good work has been done before, hopefully that counts for something,” Maketa concluded.

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