CSA not turning a blind eye to Proteas' decline

Cricket South Africa (CSA) general manager Corrie van Zyl says the board will not turn a blind eye to the national team's decline  but has no doubts that the Proteas will achieve success again.

The Proteas have slipped to sixth in the latest Test rankings after defeats to India away and England at home last summer but Van Zyl argues that there were other circumstances like injuries that contributed to those results.

Van Zyl said: "I am not worried about South African cricket to be honest. Some of our performances this season, I could explain. It wasn't nice to see but I could understand them. "For example, Dale Steyn was not available for a big part of the Test series and we had three youngsters that bowled so there was inexperience.

"Yet there was an opportunity for them to come through and look how Kagiso [Rabada] came through. Where I would have been worried is if we didn't have the Kagiso's and Chris Morris' coming through. That would have been a different story."

Some former players have questioned the decline of domestic cricket as the reason why the national side's performances have dropped off but Van Zyl said a review will take place.

He continued: "I'm not turning a blind eye to our performances. We have to go and look at it and ask how can we do better and we have the reviews to look at that.
 
"We must be totally open and say let's see what the review brings. It's an opportunity for us to research whether change is possible and whether change would be good or not.
 
"I have no doubt that we will be there again. I'm not a prophet of doom and I suppose in my position I can't be but honestly, I know we have talent in this country. Of that there is no question."