Bowling coach Allan Donald confident of South Africa's World Cup chances

Allan Donald

Former South African fast bowler and current bowling coach of the national side Allan Donald has brushed away talk of their premier fast bowler Dale Steyn carrying any injury, adding that he didn't play the warm-up game against New Zealand on Wednesday only because they want him to be completely fit prior to their first fixture against Zimbabwe at Seddon Park in Hamilton on Sunday.

"Everyone is fine. We rested Dale in the previous match to make sure he is 110% but everyone is fine," Donald said.

We won't be taking anybody lightly at the World Cup: Donald

The 48-year-old further said that there is no way the South Africans are going to take their opponents, Zimbabwe, for Sunday lightly and added everybody in the team is excited to be playing in the World Cup.

"All these so-called minnow teams - and Zimbabwe are no minnow team, they're a Full Member of the ICC - they have always found a way to scrap. There's no way anyone in this World Cup will disrespect Zimbabwe. We're taking them absolutely very seriously.

“We got on the bus in Christchurch after the New Zealand game, and AB just said, 'It's time to lock in'. Everyone's excited. Even arriving here for this training session, we know it's right on the doorstep. We're very eager to get on with it,” the former speedster said.

Until we win a major event, we will be called chokers: Donald

South Africa have been labelled as ‘chokers’ due to their inability to go past the knockout stages, and Donald admitted that until the team wins a global event, that tag will continue to stick with them.

"That tag will never go away. We're always coming here as favourites. I think there's a very calm confidence about this group that I haven't felt before.

“The next question will be how we deal with the chokers tag. We embraced that four years ago. That will never go away until we win an ICC event. We've got to come out and prove it,” he added.