Quote: Amla faces a difficult road

Reader: IanHosier

As I thought might happen when he was appointed, Amla appears to be swamped by the captaincy role. Captaining a cricket team is probably the most demanding leadership role in all sport - especially on the field. Of course, if you are the national captain, then it also brings a huge amount of additional tasks and duties - and very public exposure. He appears to be a naturally quiet and modest guy, who is most happy to get on with his own job (i.e. batting, in his case), and letting his excellence at that be his contribution to the team. The on, and off, field stresses of the captaincy role are draining him, and preventing him from doing his preferred thing (batting) well - which no doubt further drains him. All of that is compounded by the mess that SA Cricket generally is in, right now. The only solution is to relieve (him) of the role, as soon as is possible. That leaves the challenge of who to give it to, if the burden on AB can't be increased!