'Alarm bells': SA face struggle to qualify for World Cup

Cricket World Cups have caused more heartache for South African supporters than any other format of the game.

There have been agonising near-misses and numerous disappointments, but actually qualifying for the tournament has never previously been an issue.

Now, though, South Africa need to find some dramatically improved form or face taking the long road if they want to play in the main event in India in October and November 2023.

A home series defeat to Bangladesh has put the Proteas in a precarious position and they now languish in ninth spot in the ODI Super League, with only eight teams, including hosts India, to qualify automatically.

The bottom five teams in the Super League will have to endure a qualifying tournament in June 2023, along with five associate nations, with only the top two from there to qualify for the main event.

"The alarm bells are always there," said head coach Mark Boucher after Bangladesh clinched a series victory with a nine-wicket win in Centurion on Wednesday.

"We are putting ourselves under pressure but we have to come to the party.

South Africa have only won four of their 13 Super League matches and have four series yet to play; a home campaign against world champions England and tough series away against India and Australia, the latter likely to be played at the end of the 2022-23 summer.

They will, however, expect to win two postponed games against the Netherlands, although the first match of a COVID-shortened series in November was rained off.

Boucher said South Africa "went to sleep" against Bangladesh and needed to improve, but he added automatic qualification was not out of reach.

"I certainly believe that if we rock up, we stick to our game plans, we arrive with confidence, we can beat anyone in the world," he said.

"We have shown that in the T20 World Cup. It is basically the same personnel in our one-day team as well.

"We have a lot of things to talk about. We have beaten those teams (India, England, Australia) before. We have to beat them again to qualify (to the World Cup)."

Boucher is contracted until the World Cup but is not certain to be in charge by then; he faces a disciplinary hearing on charges of racial discrimination in May, which could lead to his dismissal.

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said he was struggling to understand how a team that beat India 3-0 in a series in January could play so poorly against Bangladesh.

Ironically for South Africa, the series against India was not part of the Super League.

"In the series against India our intensity was at another level but in this series we were not good enough," said Bavuma.

"The skill and execution of Bangladesh was at a high level."

Eight of the players who appeared against Bangladesh are contracted to play in the Indian Premier League, which starts on Sunday.

The IPL issue was the source of much speculation leading up to the series, with the IPL players deciding collectively that they would be available for the one-day games but not for two Test matches, which start on March 31.

Asked whether the IPL debate was a distraction, Bavuma said, "Individually the guys will have ask themselves that question, but it is not an excuse I will be using."