Article September 17, 2001 Issue

A cricketer's view of world sports

K. S.

Edgbaston, Birmingham, England . June 1999. The most exciting place in the world for any cricket lover to be. The World Cup tournament is reaching its climax and Peter Pollock, South African convenor of selectors, is in the dressing room to console the Springboks—once favorites to become world champions—after they have lost in a semifinal against Australia and are out of the tournament.

"What do you say to a team of young players who have worked for seven years to reach this moment, surviving cricket boycotts, beating apartheid, coping with unfamiliar English cricket pitches [playing surfaces]?" asks Peter Pollock. "It's one thing to handle defeat when you've been beaten by a side that's played better than you have, but how do you cope with a situation where you have not actually been beaten? The tied match is not to be replayed and the outcome has been decided on a 'technicality'—unsatisfactory to say the least!"

In a recent Sentinel interview, Peter recalled that he took a deep breath and said something like, "Guys, we gave it our best shot, and now it's over. I don't want to see anyone point a finger at anyone else. We lost together as a team. Tomorrow the sun will rise again, and cricket will go on."

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