Time to get some sleep

The night before South Africa played the West Indies at the Grenada National Stadium a group of players, apparently, was out at a nightclub in downtown St George's. The exact time varies but at approximately 3.00am a serious-looking man walked up to one the players, slipped a handgun out from his belt and held it to the side of one of the players' heads.

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These were not South African players! Apparently, a large number, if not the majority, of the West Indian team which needed to beat South Africa to stay alive in the tournament were out doing what they do best - partying.

And, for one supporter, the sight of them dancing and drinking just six and a half hours before the start of the match was more than he could stomach.

So he sent him home in emphatic fashion.

The tale just won't go away. I've heard it from so many different sources that you can't help imagining there must be some truth in it. If there is, it puts South Africa's problems into very sharp perspective.

"This generation of players has absolutely no conscience," says a senior and well-respected commentator in the Caribbean. "They don't care about results, winning and losing is all the same to them just as long as they are being well-paid and enjoying all the trappings of being a West Indian cricketer."

South Africa's cricketers, on the other hand, probably started encountering problems in Guyana because they are over commited, not under commited. One of their biggest gripes was that the practise facilities were hopeless. One is left with the distinct impression that the West Indies players would rather be doing anything else than training when you watch them in the nets. The bowling is half-hearted and the batting generates into slogging after just a few minutes. In everything they do, the players look like excessively quick movement would be beneath their dignity.

Whatever happens against England on Tuesday, it seems appropriate to point out that Graeme Smith and the players have given their all. They have trained hard and remained as focused as anybody could ever do in such a dreadfully conceived, painfully elongated tournament. They may have had their disagreements, but each and every individual has been able to remember why they are here in the Caribbean. All of them.

It is hard to imagine what the consequences might be if South Africa's cricketers behaved like the West Indians. The desire of their fans to see them succeed fuels the players' determination and, whether they realise it or not, even the criticism they receive from the travelling media (and those shamelessly doing the job from an armchair at home) is inspired because they care. Everybody wants the team to do well, and the players, professionally urged by coach Mickey Arthur, respond to that collective desire.

The reaction of West Indian supporters is pitiful. Careworn and almost completely anaesthetised to the pain of defeat by a decade of under-achievement, they have been turning away from cricket for years.

Perhaps that is the reason the current generation of young players are more interested in nightclubs than nets - that's where their contemporaries are instead of playing or supporting cricket.

South Africa's plight seemed pretty gloomy after defeats to Bangladesh and New Zealand, but Jacques Kallis put an almost ludicrously positive spin on things on Saturday evening when he informed the world that South Africa were just three "big perfomances away" from becoming world champions. "We'd have taken that before the tournament started," he said. The odds are against it: no team has won the World Cup having lost three games. South Africa would be the first.

A more immediate sense of relief and consolation, if you need one, can be gleaned from the thought that Proteas supporters will never, ever be frustrated enough to send a philandering player to bed at gunpoint. (Unless they wanted to mug him, perhaps.) There is, and will always be, more than enough commitment to guarantee that.