JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s high performance coach Mike Horn revealed that the Proteas were forced to make changes in the semi-final of the World Cup against New Zealand.
Horn, who has been working with South Africa for four years now and was part of their World Cup support staff, said ‘politics’ had a role to play in the final selection of the squad.
“What actually happened was the (semi-final) team was the team that played against Sri Lanka,” Horn told Eyewitness News on Wednesday.
“We’re not going into any politics, but it had a role to play.
The selection of Vernon Philander in place of the in-form Kyle Abbott is what Horn was pointing at. Abbot was part of the quarter-final squad which beat Sri Lanka but was surprisingly dropped for the semi-final against New Zealand.
According to a report in South Africa’s Sunday Times, the South African team was “fuming” over Philander’s selection and captain AB de Villiers was reluctant to play in the match over the issue.
Cricket South Africa chief executive Haroon Lorgat, however, denied politics had a role to play during team selection at the World Cup.
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