I know I am taking a punt here but based on everything I see at this point of time, I think South Africa have a great chance of winning their first world cup ever. They seem to have all the strengths and firepower necessary to win a big tournament. A good set of experienced one-day batsmen to start of with. Messrs. Graeme Smith, Herchelle Gibbs, Jacque Kallis and Mark Boucher are all one day batsmen who could walk into any one day team in the world (may be not together). All these guys are explosive batsmen and are capable of winning big games on their own. Add the solidity of Ashwell Prince to it and you have a very good batting outfit. Looking at the bowling Makhaya Ntini is clearly one of the best fast bowlers in the world capable of bringing that edge to an attack which other wise is fairly steady with Pollock, Nel and Langeveldt who can be trusted to be very disciplined and not give too much away.
However, two big risks remain. The first is the matter of selection. South Africa needs to be able to field the best 11 for every game without bringing politics into it. More importantly, there should be a semblance of fairness to the process because anything perceived to be unfair could bring a distraction to the team which could prove fatal at a competition of this level. The second major risk that South Africa will have to counter is the absence of a genuine slow bowler in the ranks who could pose questions to the best batsmen in the world on slow pitches. If they are confronted with a slow pitch on an important game and South Africa cannot negate the disadvantage of not having a great spin bowler (due apologies to Graeme Smith), it could prove a handicap that its good batting lineup cannot overcome.
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