Unfortunately, these guys have become weak and they don’t want to fight it out. And when I say that, I don’t mean fight it out in the moment of a game. Naseem has shown fighting spirit during games - particularly with the bat eg against Afghanistan. But they don’t fight outside games. To fight outside games, you need hard work, sacrifice, discipline to strengthen yourself, learn new skills, increase stamina, bowl quicker. Even if it’s self serving, they don’t even fight it out for their place in the team by working on their game.
I’ll give you a great example of the mentality and sheer character of a winner - Dale Steyn. When Steyn first came on the scene in around 2004/5 he was a tearaway quick. Impressive, but a bit wayward. Over the next couple of years he tried to consolidate and become more of a reliable bowler - the pace had gone down a bit and he was cruising. 2006, Morne Morkel came on the scene and was being touted as the next great S.A. bowler. From that point, I saw Steyn bowl quicker and quicker and great intensity. He didn’t let up for years and comfortably became arguably one of the greatest pacers of all time. It may have even been self serving initially, but he just did not let up at all. Do you think he just flicked a switch and all of a sudden started bowling like the wind again? No, he must have been training like a demon in the background.
Our players just don’t have that mentality or intensity any more. They are just strange, weak men.