If you’re not keen on joining the adulation of the English cricket team steer clear of British media for the next week. Paul Collingwood’s men have become the darlings of the nation, saviours of English cricket, restorers of national sporting pride, etc, etc.

Chasing a mammoth 192 in twenty overs on a slow pitch against world-class slower bowlers, few would have backed Australia to beat Pakistan in the second semi-final in St Lucia last night.

It was painful to watch the Proteas slump to yet another defeat. After cussing AB for what must rate as one of the silliest ways to get out, I wondered if perhaps a visit to the sangoma by upper echelons of South African cricket had yielded some undesired effects. Dressing room muti gone wrong?

After an impressive team performance against New Zealand, South Africa were given a true lesson today as they were convincingly beaten by a resurgent England team by 39 runs inside 19 overs.

The biggest difficulty in writing about the Proteas during an ICC world event is the danger of repeating oneself! How many times have we spoken about past failures, and how many more times can we contemplate doing it in the future?

I never really enjoyed media speculation when I was a player because I often felt that journalists and former players who were doing the speculating were not close enough to the team to understand how much effort and hard work was being put into the job. And now here I am, in exactly the same position.