The chaotic contrasts of two captains

A captain sits in a basement, a solitary figure, under siege. Confronted by glaring lights and uncomfortable questions, he speaks of embarrassment, of humiliation. He pleads for players who will stand with him and fight. A leader of a broken team that stems from a broken system and will now be scattered across the country to play in a domestic competition that is, quite literally, broken in two. Some of them will not return.

A captain stands on the boundary edge at the MCG, a solitary figure, under siege. He doesn’t speak at all. Instead, he quietly watches as his new charges stand shoulder-to-shoulder, behind their most senior member, who does all the talking. Their faces are angry, the words are defiant and the message is clear: we’re here to fight for our captain.

The contrast between the two scenes is clear.

The rest is chaos.

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A dead rubber has suddenly taken on enormous significance for both sides: one in a frantic race to piece together the fragments after two shattering defeats and avoid an historic whitewash, the other in a battle to prove the integrity of the man who has led them to this famous series victory.

Observers and fans are lining up on either side to condemn the other. The Australians are sore losers, they say; they blamed the pitches in Sri Lanka and now they’re blaming breath mints. The South Africans are cheats, they say, led by a convicted cheat, and now we know why their bowlers can swing the ball so well.

Lost is the fact the Australian camp didn’t make a complaint and at least one senior figure in Australian cricket supports everything Amla said at Saturday’s extraordinary press conference.

South Africa must contest the charge after such …

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