Former South African skipper Kepler Wessels, in an exclusive to espnstar.com, speaks on the Proteas' prospects at the ICC World T20.

By Pamela Dutta

Q: Do you think South Africa will win the ICC World Twenty20 Championship this time?
    
KW: South Africa really have a golden opportunity this time to win the trophy. I am not saying this because I am an ex-captain of South Africa, I say this because they are playing real good cricket.

Q: Suppose both South Africa and Sri Lanka reach the final, who would you put your money on?

KW: Definitely South Africa because Lord’s has more bounce than Nottingham and our pace bowlers are going great guns and I'm sure Sri Lanka will also have a tough time against our bowlers, who will definitely try to exploit the conditions.

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Q: Do you mean to say the result would have been reverse, had the final been played at Nottingham?

KW: Oh, yes! They have two world class spinners in Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, who would get more turn at Nottingham.

Q: How do you rate your spinners?

KW: Johan Botha is bowling well. Our spin bowlers are following the basics, which is a very essential factor, specially in limited overs cricket.

Q: How would you analyse South Africa, in this ICC World T20?

KW: They have been dominating over other teams. The basic theory of winning a match is to balance the team. We do have that and we all have to accept that Graeme Smith is leading the side very well. The same bunch of boys have been playing cricket together for quite some time and that is also a very big plus point.

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Q: South Africa have been tagged “chokers”, because they failed to win a major ICC tournament, since making a re-entry into international cricket in 1992.

KW: This is unfortunate. We did well, even in the 1992 World Cup in Australia. We were very close to winning the trophy in 1999, but I think this time, we are clearly going to win the Championship. We all are keeping our fingers crossed.

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