Wednesday, April 3, 2002 South Africa are desperate to see the back of Australia, and no wonder. When a team is not doing well the pressure on the players builds and builds. If the last few months' results are taken at face value you might even start to question why these encounters were billed as a battle for world supremacy. But though South Africa have made mistakes, they should not be discouraged by what has happened.

I still rank Australia and South Africa as the two best teams in world cricket. Third and fourth places, to my mind, are still up for grabs, with England, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka fighting it out.

Australia have the edge over South Africa at the moment but let us not forget that only a few months back Australia too were struggling in the Test series against New Zealand and in the subsequent one-day triangular tournament. South Africa are down now but they will bounce back.

Despite losing they have been competitive, and they have also displayed players of good technique. Jacques Kallis is the obvious example, but all of the young players, especially Neil McKenzie and Andrew Hall, have a sound basic technique. This suggests a promising future, and experience will make them more effective players.

International cricket is like a finishing school. As long as you have the talent and temperament, exposure to the big time will help it all click. And there can be no better examination than taking on the best team in the world. This winter of defeats will prove to be an invaluable learning experience for South Africa's young players.

The fact that South Africa do have talented young players coming through is a tribute to their system. But they have made one major mistake that has contributed to this string of defeats. The way to introduce new talent is to feed it in gradually. Of your four frontline bowlers, three should be experienced and the fourth should be a promising player of the future. There should be the same balance in the batting line-up.

Injuries, early retirements, and selection controversies have not helped. A South African Test team boasting Daryll Cullinan, Jonty Rhodes and Allan Donald would have proved a far stiffer challenge for Australia. You should squeeze as much out of experienced players as possible. As long as they are performing, age does not matter.

It is not a lack of talent that has harmed South Africa, but the gap in experience between the two teams was just too big.

Javed Miandad, Pakistan's most prolific batsman and later their coach, was talking to Kamran Abbasi. His column appears every Wednesday.

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