When J-P Duminy hobbled off the field after injuring his hamstring during the recent World T20, he not only ended his own outing in the tournament but, for all practical purposes, also called time on South Africa’s chances of advancing past the league stage.
The all-rounder was key to his team’s chances at breaking the jinx at ICC events, but that was not to be. It was a familiar script for South Africa, which, despite the multitude of individual talent in every department in its ranks, seems to be the perennial underachiever in international cricket.
“It’s hard to point out, I don’t think anything is wrong, honestly — we’ve got the players, we’ve got the management staff to go all the way but unfortunately, we just haven’t got over the line,” Duminy admitted, in an interaction with Sportstar here on Friday.
“Honestly, before coming into this tournament, we had improved hell of a lot in ICC events — in the World Cup last year, we lost in the semifinals and were unfortunate. In the 2014 World T20, we played a good game again in the semis but India was better on that day. It’s not like we are making lots of mistakes. Unfortunately, we did let ourselves down this year,” he added.
That injury kept him out of Delhi Daredevils’s 2016 season-opener and his IPL team, not surprisingly, missed him as much as his national team. Duminy insisted he has now recovered, but added that results were not exactly something he spent too much thinking about.
“There is pretty much full recovery now. But the disappointment is not in the result, I’m more interested in being fit enough to be up for selection. There’s been a tough three weeks and it’s been frustrating but now it’s behind me and hopefully I can focus on the tournament ahead,” he said.
In fact, talking to Duminy is like hearing coach Rahul Dravid all over again. A firm believer in the process of development rather than instant results, the 32-year-old insisted that it was important to think beyond results for concentrating on performances.
“See, if you are results-driven, that is when there is no balance between success and disappointment. If you believe you have played well, then you are very much on top. But if you are not, it’s going to hurt a lot.
“In an ideal world, you want to find that balance whatever results come your way, and I think that’s why most coaches and players speak about the process. If you want to be successful as a sportsman, you can’t get emotional about results because that’s going to affect your performance,” Duminy said.
“We’ve got to stick to what we know best and that is to train well and, hopefully, the results will come,” he added. With the kind of track record Delhi Daredevils has had, the team will hope it finally is time for results after eight disappointing seasons in the IPL.
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