South Africa, the school of defeats!

By John Cheeran
Stop wailing for a few minutes and just leaf through history sheets.
India has beaten South Africa only three times in South Africa.
So India’s defeats in Durban and Cape Town is an extension of a glorious tradition of sacrifice.
Out of those three wins, the two came long, long ago in 1992-93 when India toured South Africa for the first time. In a seven match series, South Africans whipped India in five matches and let India win two ODIs. May be those two wins were fixed by the then captain Mohammad Azharuddin!
And India’s third and last win over South Africa in South Africa came in 2001 at Centurion during the tri-nation series. At Centurion, India beat South Africa by 41 runs. It has to be remembered that India three times to South Africa lost during that tournament.
Then John Wright was the coach and Sourav Ganguly was the captain.
But I believe in 2001, there was no breast beating about such losses.
Today there are new men in charge, but South Africa and South Africans have not changed. What a pity!
India has evolved and is now on the threshold of superpower status. But Indian cricketers are still struggling to transform themselves into supermen.
Baying for Greg Chappell’s blood for these losses will be an affront to our sense of history.
Yes, history must be rewritten when it comes to the shameful chapters of India’s performance in South Africa.
But that can be done only by Rahul Dravid and his boys. May be they need to take more lessons in the school of defeats.