Arthur placing faith in youngsters

South Africa have endured a torrid NatWest series so far at the hands of England

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South Africa will dispense with mere damage limitation at Lord’s tomorrow and instead try to launch a “new era”.

The statement of intent comes from coach Mickey Arthur, exasperated by his team’s sudden and telling loss of form against a resurgent England in the NatWest Series.

The tourists’ impressive limited-overs record has gone AWOL over the past week, culminating at the Brit Oval yesterday in a second successive landslide defeat at the hands of Kevin Pietersen’s England.

With the series already gone and a possible whitewash looming, Arthur has already made it clear no one - not even those players most closely associated with South Africa’s long run of success - can consider their places safe from now on.

While England are re-inventing themselves as a force to be reckoned with near the top of the one-day international rankings, Arthur has challenged his charges to make a much-needed gear shift.

“It’s up to the youngsters in the next two games to stick their hands up and stake a claim,” said Arthur, whose once formidable squad has been depleted by a clutch of high-profile retirements and most recently captain Graeme Smith’s absence through injury.

“I’ve got a dressing room that is a little bit down in confidence. But we’ll sit down and hammer home the basics again.

“It’s up to us to bring those (young) guys forward as quickly as we possibly can and the starting point for me is Lord’s.

“That could be the starting point of a new generation for the South African one-day side. That’s how we’ve got to look at it, and how I’m trying to package it.”

Mickey Arthur has called on South Africa's younger players to step up after losing the NatWest series

Realist Arthur is retaining his optimism too, but knows there has been a major gulf between South Africa and their opponents, who prevailed by 10 wickets at Trent Bridge and 126 runs at the Brit Oval to charge into a 3-0 lead.

“I’ve been very disappointed by how England have outplayed us in all three disciplines, how we haven’t applied the basics enough,” Arthur admitted.

“That’s my major worry, and that is up to us as a coaching staff to get right. I see that as a major challenge for my management team now.”

Arthur is loathe to look for excuses for South Africa’s dramatic downturn in ODIs, acknowledging their Test series win over England took its toll but preferring to look ahead to what he and his developing team can achieve.

“It was a very, very special Test series victory for us,” he added.

“We ended that part of the tour, and this part has been hugely disappointing.

“Our attack is very inexperienced in terms of one-day cricket, and in some key batting areas we’ve got a lot of younger players.

“We need to get them out there and expose them. If I have to take a positive out of this, it’s asked us all where we want to go as a one-day unit.

“Guys need to focus on their positions in the one-day team.”

Some of that may start to happen if South Africa can avoid defeats at Lord’s and Cardiff over the next four days - but it is the longer term that interests Arthur most.

“I really think it is time for us to re-evaluate where we want to go, re-evaluate our personnel and start a new era for South Africa in terms of one-day cricket and getting ready for the World Cup in 2011,” he concluded.