HAMILTON — A meticulous planner, the South African captain AB de Villiers has prepared himself for everything at the World Cup. Like every South African, de Villiers needs no reminding that the Proteas have never won the World Cup and carry the label of chokers courtesy of their previous near misses. South Africa will open its latest World Cup campaign against Zimbabwe at Hamilton Saturday. On the eve of the match, de Villiers attended the mandatory pre-match news conference and was prepared for when the inevitable question came up about his country's World Cup record. “Those past happenings and the chokers and all of that, that's still very much part of our system,” he told reporters. “There's no doubt about it. We're going to have to win to take that away, and we know that. “But like I said before, it's a great opportunity for all of us. The guys being here can make history, and just want to slow things down. That's the main message for this tournament.” South Africa has been among the favorites to win every World Cup they've contested since 1992 but have come up short each time, losing in the semifinals in 1992, 1999 and 2007 and the quarterfinals in 1996 and 2011. While de Villiers conceded that the only thing way South Africa could shed their chokers' tag is by winning the World Cup, he also said it was important they don't get too fixated on the title. “We're not getting ahead of ourselves, we're not thinking about the trophy at the moment,” he said. “We know we can win, there's no doubt about it, but we know there are lots of obstacles along the way that we're going to have to overcome.” South Africa is again one of the favorites to win the World Cup and for good reason. It has a strong bowling attack and a powerful batting lineup, led but de Villiers, who is ranked as the world's best One Day International batsman. Zimbabwe is one of the tournament longshots, though an improving team capable of testing anyone on its day, and de Villiers was sticking to the sportsman's mantra of talking up his opponents. “They beat Australia not long ago. They're a dangerous side,” he said. “They've come a long way and think they're under good leadership at the moment from the captain and the coach, so definitely a side to be reckoned with. “We've got our plans in place, but we know we'll have to take them up seriously tomorrow. It's a big start for both teams.” Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura is optimistic his team can carry the good form it showed during the warm-up matches into its opening tie. The 28-year-old said good showings in the rained-off first warm-up game against New Zealand — where it reduced the co-host to 157 for seven — and then a shock seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka had bolstered Zimbabwe's morale. “It (the warm-up performances) gives us a lot of confidence,” said Chigumbura Saturday. “It gives us a lot of the belief that we do need as a team, that it's possible to beat a big team, and obvious, looking at the guys who performed, our main batters, which is a good sign. “We're looking forward to the main games now, and hopefully the guys who performed well will carry on with their form and hopefully finish on the better side tomorrow,” Chigumbura added. Zimbabwe was crushed 5-0 in Bangladesh in November last year, a defeat which led it to hire World Cup-winning coach Dav Whatmore. Chigumbura, who is in his second stint as one-day captain, revealed that Whatmore had wrought a significant change in the team's outlook. “He's an experienced coach,” said Chigumbura of the former Australian batsman who guided Sri Lanka to World Cup glory in 1996 and then took Bangladesh to an upset win over India for a place in the Super Eights at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. “Guys are more comfortable dealing with him. He's bringing lots of experience and different tactics and looking at the games that we played, the two games that we played, you can tell that we're heading in the right direction.” — Agencies
