The Duminy dilemma

It is never fun seeing a really good player suffering. But I believe the time has come for JP Duminy to be put out of his misery and allowed to retreat to some intensive, out-of-competition technical assistance to cobble his game back together, writes Rob Houwing on Sport24.

Admittedly in the limited-overs arena, in particular, a string of low scores can be deceptive: Duminy bats in the middle order and has been commendably unselfish in sacrificing his wicket when there’s a late-innings slog on. That has been apparent a couple of times on the current, extended South African sojourn in the Caribbean, and especially in the Proteas’ dismal ICC World Twenty20 campaign, where he was one of several players who suffered from unacceptably torpid tempos at the top of the order and the haywire that can cause for the soldiers stationed lower down it. But we also can’t use that indefinitely as a mitigating shield to protect Duminy.