Of all the mistakes made by Shaun Pollock in his first Test match as captain (and, let’s be honest, he made a few), the worst by some distance was his failure to call the toss correctly on the first morning in Galle.

A lot went wrong for South Africa in the first Test, but almost all of it either stemmed from or was compounded by the loss of the toss. Sanath Jayasuriya wanted to win it as badly as Pollock and he had absolutely no hesitation in choosing to bat. He got Sri Lanka off to a flier and the rest is history.

It is difficult to know exactly what advice to offer Pollock in this connection. Hundreds, nay thousands, of captains before him have wrestled with the same problem but none has satisfactorily resolved it. Even Salim Malik, who once famously called “Bird” on the first morning of a Test match in Harare, couldn’t subvert the system. And if cricket’s greatest shyster couldn’t come up with a way to wangle the toss, Pollock has no price. He’ll just have bank on luck like the rest of them.

Predictably, South Africa, to a man, woman and dog, has dumped on Pollock since the innings defeat. For a young man who has mostly found cricket an easy game and who, you suspect, might still be a year or two off full maturity, this cannot be pleasant.

Coach Graham Ford has also been caught in the crossfire, but much, if not most, of the criticism has been poorly directed. To put the case for the defence of Ford first, most of the flak he has copped has consisted of “who’ s he?”, “what’s he ever done?” and “what does he know, anyway?”

Just for the record, since succeeding Bob Woolmer after last year’s World Cup, Ford has guided South Africa to two Test series victories (including a rare success in India), two victories in one-day tournaments, two runners up spots in one-day tournaments and one win and one loss in one-day series. Nick Mallett or Trott Moloto should have such a record.

As far as Pollock is concerned, everyone in South Africa should be aware of the circumstances in which he acquired the captaincy. Of course he wasn’t ready to take over, but then no one else was either. It is also one of cricket’s oldest maxims that bowlers don’t make good captains and in Pollock ’s case he is not just a bowler, but suddenly South Africa’s premier strike bowler.

In different circumstances Pollock might justifiably have expected to have Allan Donald and Nantie Hayward to call on. But Donald is still with Warwickshire, no matter Ali Bacher’s desperate efforts to get him released for next month’s one-dayers in Australia, and Hayward had shin splints.

So Pollock had to carry the weight of the seam attack on his shoulders while discovering that his other trump card, Paul Adams, was seriously underdone. Adams, it should be remembered, had barely bowled 20 overs in anger since breaking a finger at Centurion Park in January.

If you take all this into account, you can almost allow that South Africa did pretty well to restrict Sri Lanka to only 522. Of course, though, that’s not the way South Africans will see it and neither, I suspect, is it the way that Pollock and his team-mates will see it.

South Africa bowled poorly, the fielding was ordinary by South Africa’s standards, Jayasuriya batted out of his skin and Mahela Jayawardene built on the start magnificently. Too often Pollock didn’t quite get the balance between attack and defence right, although had Jonty Rhodes held a sharp chance at point off Jayasuriya, we might now be saying how well Pollock read the match.

What Pollock has to do is conceal his irritation when things go wrong in the field and cut out completely the occasional sparks of petulance that surfaced during the one-day series. But let’s make one thing clear. When Hansie Cronje was sacked as captain, Pollock was not simply a possible choice to take over. He was the only choice.

Gary Kirsten relinquished the vice-captaincy at his own request a couple of years ago to concentrate on his batting; Rhodes is a much quieter person off the field than his fielding and batting might suggest, and he also has a lot on his plate scoring sufficient runs to keep his place in the side; Daryll Cullinan is, by nature, an introvert and prefers to keep his own council.

If you want to blame anyone for the first Test defeat, blame the United Cricket Board or the selectors for not ensuring that Donald was in Sri Lanka. Blame Cronje for trying to induce Herschelle Gibbs to throw a match. Blame Sri Lanka for playing much the better cricket in conditions, which suited them down to the ground.

But lay off Pollock and Ford for a while. They’ve got one of the most difficult jobs in cricket at the moment.

© M&G