When Hashim Amla fails, the world twitches and cricket is a crueller place. Instinct tells you to cover your eyes and pretend it did not happen. How can it be that a man such as him should not succeed in everything he puts his heart and mind to?
So South Africa’s era-ending series loss in India was especially difficult to watch. Amla as captain lost three of four Tests, emphatically all, and though the fourth was washed out too early in its development, it would not be outrageous to imagine India having won that as well.
Amla as batsman averaged under 17, with a highest of 43 though it would be remiss to not note, especially given the conditions, a couple of small yet outstanding innings.
To make ourselves feel better, we could find ways to justify this blip. The nature of the challenge in India this time was just so extreme: high-quality spinners on rarely seen surfaces ate away at his batting, while an apocalyptic spate of injuries blew chunks out of his arsenal as captain, of a team that was already in transition.
The scene, however, if you dare peek out through your fingers, is not pleasant. There is no way to deny how tough a year this has been for Amla. Since a hundred against Ireland in the World Cup in March, this cruel, cruel world has allowed him one fifty-plus score in 27 international innings across all formats.
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It is not about to get any kinder, either. England loom from Saturday in Durban, England with James Anderson, Stuart Broad, maybe Steven Finn and Ben Stokes, too, threatening to create a little patch of personal hell for Amla outside off, or around his pads. Last week in Cape Town, in a domestic game, he was out for 10 and 23 for the Cobras.
Already, then, it feels like Amla could be entering a critical phase of his captaincy, as Graeme Smith was not so helpfully reminding us a couple of weeks ago.
“Look I’ve got a huge amount of respect for Hashim Amla,” Smith said. “He’s had a tough run, we’ve all had those tough runs. He’s a man of immense character and well-respected in the environment.
“He needs time. It’s his first challenge as a captain now and how he bounces back from this will speak volumes for him and the team. I think we need to always give him that opportunity to bounce back. How he brings the guys through, and this England tour now becomes an important challenge for him as a leader.”
It was unmistakably a backing, but was it as wholehearted and emphatic as might be expected from one former teammate for another? Perhaps not, especially considering that it had been preceded by the revelation that Smith was seriously considering a return to international cricket.
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A larger than life former captain, who many feel retired early, still close to the side, publicly pondering a return? Way to make the man who has to fill your shoes feel secure.
One not pretty reading of Amla’s record as captain this year will show just one Test win from seven Tests, in January against the West Indies. But the greater problem is the second number: Durban will only be South Africa’s eighth Test of the year, whereas it will be England’s 14th.
In reality South Africa’s haul is only five Tests, given that rain reduced three Tests in Bangladesh and India to a grand total of five days cricket out of 15.
Which is Amla’s biggest problem, that more than anything South Africa, the world’s top Test side remember, have been invisible in the format.
They did not play a Test from January until the end of July, which, when they did in Bangladesh, was tantamount to not playing.
Not until November did they actually play a full Test again. Undercooked does not begin to describe it. And that sense wraps itself around Amla’s captaincy as well. South Africa have played 12 Tests since he took over in July 2014; only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have played less.
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Eighteen months old, yet Amla’s captaincy is barely tenure right now or, indeed, can even be said to have begun properly. Of the many things captaincy needs, a regular opportunity for it to be exercised is above most.
Now this next month has the makings of being a difficult one for Amla admirers, or, as they are known collectively, the human race. The ascendancy of AB de Villiers, one-day captain, resident genius and just beneath him in the batting order, will rattle away at his feet.
Smith is bound to be a constant presence, in person off the field and, perhaps in his absence, in spirit on it. And then it will not be difficult to be reminded of Amla’s earlier reluctance to take over as captain and, well …
Draw hope though from the kind of man that he is, the kind unlikely to be as shaken inside as we are on the outside, by this little storm around him.
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