South Africans need rest
Published : Sep 13, 2008 00:00 IST
South African coach Mickey Arthur said that his team was showing signs of ‘burn-out’ and was in desperate need of complete rest as it was constantly playing cricket since last September.
“We have been involved without any break since last September and all the cricket has taken its toll,” Arthur said while addressing the media at Johannesburg International Airport soon after returning from England.
“The burn-out was shown especially during our tour to England. All the players showed some signs of problems and they all need a complete rest,” he added.
South Africa won the Test series 2-1 but they lost the one-day series 4-0 after the 5th one-day was washed out.
However, Arthur said they were thankful that they would not be playing in the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan as the players would be able to rest for the whole of September before playing for their provincial teams.
The next tour to Australia starts in December, but that does not bother Arthur as he feels there is enough time to rest in between the matches.
“I’m not too worried about three Tests back to back, because we have plenty of time between those Tests to recuperate.
“We have five days between the Tests in Perth and Melbourne, and the New Year’s Test has been put back to January 3. It could even work in our favour, if we get off to a good start and get some momentum going,” he said.