The recent ODI series loss to England made me wonder, is my undying loyalty to the Proteas really worth it? I’m not sure if my absolute love of the game was just complete admiration for one man – Shaun Pollock.

Hence my cricketing crisis. Now don’t think that I’m only questioning my devotion because of the 4-0 drumming we received, it was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

To think, at the beginning of the one-day series, everyone was talking about the historic Test series victory and that South Africa would cruise to a ODI series win against the English. In addition, the series win would have moved us up to that coveted No.1 spot on the world rankings, which the team had worked so hard to achieve. Not like the last time we were number one, when it was gifted to us by New Zealand, who thumped the Aussies just before the 2007 World Cup (but we all know what that added pressure did to us).

The first one-dayer arrived and I went out in my lucky green socks – I couldn’t wear my ODI shirt because I had to go to work. Listening to the game on my pocket-sized mp3 radio throughout the day and later watching the game at home, I didn’t really worry too much because South Africa should have cruised to victory…

Well, let’s just say that my lucky green socks are now banned from all cricket games! But as is my normal thinking pattern, I just said: “Don’t stress, we always come back with a fight and win!”

My optimism was to no avail, as we went down three in a row, thus handing the series to England. Then all the newspapers called for a 5-0 whitewash by England and to make matters worse it would have moved us down the ODI rankings with England jumping from seventh to second.

As the final game approached, I hoped that the Proteas could pull off a win just to leave their egos bruised, but not broken. I’ve only ever wished for rain once in my life and it was in that game against Australia in the World Cup 2007 (sadly, not even the weather could have saved us).

Wednesday’s game was the second time, then, when I put in my earphones to listen to the radio I was as pleased as punch to hear that is was a true-to-form English day, raining cats and dogs! The rain gods had shown some mercy and had given us something to hold on to, our No.2 spot.

The season started off so well for the team, with wins on the sub-continent as well as a Test win in England. But the boys look to be lacking that fighting SA sprit from this last fight – I mean, really, which South African would want to lose 4-0 to Captain Pietersen? His big head didn’t need more inflating.

Reflecting back on the tour we never really looked in good form, something was missing in the viewership quality of the team. I found myself flipping through the channels during the games, which I never used to do. Also, I was negative when thinking about the team, making snide remarks - not the sort of thing any team would like to hear from a diehard fan.  

I’ll be the first to admit that I miss Shaun Pollock and clearly so do South Africa. His bowling - wielding away outside the off stump, never giving away too many free runs. His batting - he reinforced the lower order and was extremely helpful in a tough situation.

The great all-rounder left huge shoes to fill, but without that balance, the Proteas look a lot like Kimberley… a place with a huge hole in the middle! Even with our current gems, we need that multi-faceted jewel.

We have diamonds in the rough in the bowling department, with the likes of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, but they need some time to adjust into a role and maybe, with a lot of work on their accuracy (speed isn’t everything) as well as batting, they could become fine-cut jewels.

Just like the time spent in the progress of mining and cutting precious stones, it will take a while to redraft a strong one day side that can beat the best. The senior players must come to the party now more than ever to steer the Proteas, and as much as we all miss Polly, I do believe that the team can move towards great cricketing success.