Will South Africa deliver at the T20 World Cup?

That the men’s T20 World Cup’s temporary ground near New York can hold more fans than South Africa’s Wanderers is noteworthy. What does it say? South Africa is in the bottom half of the eight teams. The only teams entering Nassau with senior men’s World Cup, T20, or ODI wins are India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Bangladesh is the odd man out with grounds larger than Nassau but no World Cup. They have only reached one global knockout game, the 2015 ODI quarterfinals in Melbourne, when India beat them by 109 runs. South Africa have won one of 10 knockout games, the 2015 Sydney quarterfinals, when they defeated Sri Lanka by nine wickets.

Cricket-loving South Africans will object to their squad being compared to Bangladesh, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Canada. They can’t avoid that suggestion. Perhaps Nassau’s crowds are greater than the Wanderers’ because South Africans talk better cricket than they play. Or that cricket isn’t as important in South Africa as its fans and the globe think. The biggest rugby stadium in South Africa has twice as many supporters as its cricket stadium, and its football arena has three times more.

Will South Africa deliver at the T20 World Cup?

The 2014 men’s under-19 cricket World Cup is the country’s lone success. More than 10 years after South Africa’s sole victory, its captain is preparing to lead the senior team. Could anything from then help now?

“I don’t take too much from it,” Aiden Markram said a Thursday press conference. I consider it a different level of cricket. You may gain some confidence from it. This will be our first World Cup win, in my opinion. That doesn’t negate our under-19 performance. We are still quite pleased of our tremendous success, but this one would mean even more.”

Markram’s position has changed after 2014: “ICC captains have busier off-field duties. Our amazing team makes handling that easier for me. It lets me focus on cricket and allocate energy to help the team succeed.”

Markram is one of seven South Africans who joined the World Cup squad on Wednesday, five days before their opening against Sri Lanka, due to the IPL. That may indicate that the South Africans are in the second tier of international cricket, but only the ECB could exclude their players from the Indian event. Given the busy franchise tournament schedule, piecemeal international squad assembly will become increasingly common.

“Doing things how they used to be done, in terms of doing a proper build-up as a squad, might get more challenging moving forward,” he remarked. “We want to be together as much as possible before any series or World Cup, but time and practice dictate. Such actions are becoming routine.”

At a Tuesday press conference, Rob Walter agreed when questioned about England’s and South Africa’s IPL player policies. “We’re in a different position to them in terms of having access to those players,” he said. There are many causes, some of which are at my pay grade.

Ideal is to have players together. You start well, do what you want, and prepare for the World Cup. That’s not our reality, and I’m fine with the players’ maturity. I wish we had more time with the guys, but that’s not possible.”