A different kind of swagger

Champion teams develop a way of conducting themselves and behaving in public. It starts with the senior players and spreads through the ranks as the years go by until, as always in sport, the wheel finally turns.

Clive Lloyd is naturally cool - as in calm - but he had a ruthless streak in him that was genuinely menacing. He was the gentleman assassin. At least, he was the gentleman in charge of the assassinator fast bowlers whom he appointed to obliterate the opposition for ten years.

Viv Richards wasn't cool at all, but he was extremely 'cool'. Viv could be as hot-headed as anybody in world cricket, but when he walked out to bat with a cap on and a stick of gum in his mouth, no cricketer in the world could deny that he had 'presence'. And it was cool. The gold chain around the neck, the gold bracelet with 'Viv' carved into it. Cool. Undeniably.

Then the Aussies took over and they developed their own strut. Everything was on their terms. Allan Border was Captain Grumpy at the start of Australia's rise to prominence and understandably so, he'd been through a sewerage blender in the aftermatch of World Series Cricket and had taken more beatings than were healthy until the team started to win. Finally.

Mark Taylor presided over the first period of the glory years and, being 'Tubby' and not altogether glamorous, his team - which contained a few other 'unglamorous' characters in David Boon and Merv Hughes - celebrated their successes in wonderfully workmanlike ways. Lots of cold beers and a laugh with the opposition in their changing room have abused them to the point of counselling on the field.

Then came the Steve Waugh years. World supremacy was established and, much as Waugh tried off the field to encourage a social conscience amongst his players, the of field domination was so accute that the majority of his players did their own thing and a reputation for arrogance became inevitable.

Here in England, with all the world's best cricketers gathered in one place, it is obvious who they are looking up to. Graeme Smith's Proteas are regarded as the best team in the world. They don't have a 'reputation' yet. People compare them to previous South African teams because they are intense and focussed, but they don't see the 'worry' in their eyes when they are under pressure. And they don't see the white-knuckled, brutal intensity which undid previous South African teams.

Instead, they see a focussed team on the field but with smiles on their faces and a lack of superiority when it comes to mingling with ordinary people in the lobby of the hotel. They see a team comfortable and at ease with their status and ability. Perhaps this will change if they keep on winning - hopefully not.

It has been a monumental 18 months for the South African team, in all forms of the game and on all continents. If the progress continues, the rest of us will come to accept - as the players from other nations have - that they are the next dominant force in world cricket. However they may try to disguise it, the rest of the world's top cricketers know that South Africa are setting the standard.

So what will be their 'swagger'?

Hopefully, none at all. If this team can be a team for the people, all people, then they will make an impression in history lasting far beyond whatever results they achieve.