South Africa really can't make excuses

In two successive interviews since South Africa won the Test series, the coach Mickey Arthur has played down his team's chances in the one-dayers and clearly set out to douse the flames of high expectation back home, writes Rodney Hartman in Independent Online.

The Test series triumph set the tone and the media and the public rather liked the fuzzy feeling they got going into the new year. The last thing they need is to feel like they're losing it - as happened in England last year when South Africa's victory in the Test series was followed by a horrible flop in the ODIs. Also, on the question of rebuilding, the Australians are in the same boat.