Having won the series in the fourth one day international the fifth was always going to be a slightly strange affair after the high drama the tour has provided us throughout the summer.

I generally do not like the idea of rotation and not playing your best team in every match, but in this case I suppose the decision prevents us losing momentum should we lose the dead rubber as so often happens.

For me it was a very interesting tussle because we must remain well aware of the fact that Australia were struck some cruel injury blows over the summer, and with us not playing some of our stalwarts, it is a fair indication of how the two teams would fare against each other when faced with the same selection problems. As it turns out we had nothing to worry about because we now know our second team can beat their second team as well.

Mind games

But this column is as a direct result of one fielding incident in this final ODI. If you have been reading my columns you would probably have realised by now I am fascinated by the mind games of life, and sport, and I want to stay with the subject a little longer.

Michael Clarke pulled of a brilliant diving stop at midwicket and either one of Hashim Amla or AB De Villiers were dead in the water. Clarke could choose which one to run out, and before South Africa arrived in Australia earlier last year, probably would have — with a direct hit! But the Australian team has now become the deer in headlights they so often reduced other teams to over the last few years and somehow the chance was wasted.

The question the incident raises for me is what makes an individual or a team believe in itself? How do they keep calm under pressure? How are they able to access their ability when things have been going against them for some time? Is it something internal — regardless of the circumstances — or does the situation need to be favourable for you to be in a positive mental state and to be calm under pressure?

If we require the circumstances to make us feel positive, how do we develop a mind which allows real mental toughness when things just have not being going our way and we need to turn it around?

It has become a cliché in sporting terms that 90 percent of success is in the head and only 10 percent is down to talent. I have, however, always agreed with the statement because the most talented is not always the one that makes it in the world of sport, but rather those with the strongest minds. If we accept that this is true then I have always wondered why we spend 90percent of our time training techniques and maybe 10percent of our time developing the mind!

The Holy Grail

Obviously you need talent, but as a coach I have always believed in coaching the person and if you succeed there then the technique will generally look after itself.

The point is if you give someone with a weak mind the holy grail of technical sporting information they will probably put it in a cupboard at home and do nothing with it. But give someone that has a tough mind just a sniff of what he needs to do technically and he will take it and turn it into something incredibly precious — it is not the information, it is what the person does with it.

The truth is that there is no holy grail of technical information but I do believe that there is a holy grail of mental toughness. Successful cricketers and people have shown me seven crucial characteristics:

  • They have a clear and defined image of their objective and goal,
  • They have a driving passion to achieve there objective and are prepared to do what it takes to get there,
  • They see tough times as a challenge not as a threat,
  • They develop a positive mental attitude and don’t lose faith in their ability or their quest even when they have setbacks in there progress,
  • They don’t blame others or situations when things go wrong but take responsibility for their action
  • They remain calm under pressure.
  • Their self esteem is not defined by their achievements but is based on themselves as a person

    Developing the mind

    I am not a mind doctor so I do not have the answers, but the question I constantly ask as a coach is how we can change our personal characteristics. Can we develop a tough mental attitude or do we have to be born with it? I was coach of Western Province when we signed Graeme Smith as a very young eighteen year old. I can still remember where we were walking in the Newlands Stadium when he said to me – “I do not want to be average!” He did not have a great technique and he struggled to hit the ball off the square, but that statement convinced me that here was someone special. He was born with mental toughness and the results are obvious. If we aren’t bless with that though, how can we develop it?

    If we could start the process at school and spend more time teaching our young sportsmen and women how they need to think, how they need to act, what characteristics they need to develop then we will have a generation that can dominate the world of sport – and business.

    But for now what the Protea’s need to do is capture the emotional state they are in. Learn to understand it and know how the get there again especially when things are not going their way. The home leg is going to be tougher — the Australians are hurting and we know they are proud.

    So if what I say is true then real domination is not just on the scoreboard but also the mental domination of your opponent. The deer is in the headlights – let’s keep them there.

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