World Cup 2019: Kagiso Rabada compares South Africa’s failures with Shakespearean tragedies

For South Africa, the cricket World Cup has remained a tragedy. Ever since they made their debut in the 1992 edition, the Proteas have returned home broken-hearted from the semi-finals as many as four times. They are into yet another World Cup and premier pacer Kagiso Rabada feels the current youngsters in the side do not carry the burden of the past and hence the end result in the current edition could be different for Faf du Plessis’ men. However, South Africa has so far lost both their games against England and Bangladesh and need to bounce back fast.

Rabada even brought a literary analogy to say that the tag of eternal chokers is like “Shakespearean tragedies” and hoped that South Africa will succeed in untagging themselves this time. “It’s something that has been haunting us for years. It’s like a Shakespearean tragedy almost. Hopefully, we can change that,” republicworld.com cited reports as quoting the 24-year-old pacer in an interview prior to the World Cup’s beginning.

Only positivity counts going into the World Cup, says Rabada

“You can’t be anything but positive going into the World Cup. We believe we have every chance to win the World Cup. What has happened in the past, you got to let go of that,” Rabada, who has 108 wickets from 68 ODIs, said. South Africa haven’t ever won any ICC Trophy excepting the inaugural ICC Knockout Trophy (now named Champions Trophy) in 1998.

Rabada went for runs in the game against Bangladesh that South Africa lost by 21 runs to make their lives difficult in this World Cup at the very beginning. He had taken two wickets against England in the first match which SA lost by 104 runs. Rabada, however, has already clocked bowling at 150 km per hour in this World Cup.

Rabada also sparked controversy recently by calling India captain Virat Kohli “immature” saying he doesn’t like it when others give him back his own medicine in verbal duels. For many, Rabada was laying the foundation of the big clash which will take place between India and South Africa in Southampton on June 5.