SA must win to get over fear of failure: Gibbs

Former opener Herschelle Gibbs feels that South Africa need to win a major ICC trophy to shed the tag of chokers. South Africa’s only major title came in the inaugural edition of the Champions Trophy in 1998. In an interview, Gibbs spoke about the Proteas’ chances of winning the Champions Trophy and what makes India the favourites to lift the trophy. Excerpts:

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South Africa won their Champions Trophy opener against Afghanistan. How do you rate their performance?

They stand as good a chance as anyone to win the tournament. Obviously, the game against Australia was rained out. That put us on the back foot with regards to the points tally but yes the game against England is a do-or-die. That’s the equation and you have to get on with it.

South Africa always falter when it comes to ICC

tournaments. How do you explain it?

When I look back, it was always the tournament that got the best out of me. It was not always the case with some of our players. It is the fear of failure and I have seen it many times and this is what happened at the T20 World Cup as well. You need cool heads and it will always be the issue until we end up winning one. We have the talent and they need calmer heads in pressure situations. We need to find guys from domestic cricket who actually like the pressure and we actually don’t have that with us.

How do you analyse SA’s performance in the T20 World Cup final?

I think because of the IPL, Heinrich Klaasen gets talked up quite a lot. His wicket cost us the game. The shot that he played for a guy who was in was very surprising. You cannot put that on David Miller because he is the guy who has won us games in the past. I think we needed only 23 or 24 runs at that stage and you cannot lose a game from there. For a man who is in, he is the one who should take you home.

Do you think the 50-over format is battling for survival?

I think it is. I think the bilateral series can be a little more stagnant. I think the tri-series could be the way forward. From the batting perspective the amount of T20 cricket that is played, those skills should be implemented in 50-over cricket too. It will make it more interesting.

How do you rate India’s chances of winning the title?

At the moment, they are playing confident cricket. They are firm favourites but New Zealand, South Africa, Australia can all win it and that is what makes it very nice to see. It was nice to see Virat Kohli score runs. He is my favourite player. India is definitely the favourite.

There is talk about how India have the advantage of playing all their games at one ground. What are your thoughts about that?

I have seen those comments but it is what it is. The less said about that is better. Everybody knows that they will be playing in Dubai, just accept it and play. Just get on with it.