Coach SA wants his team to enjoy “excitement and anxiety” during the low-key build-up to the semi-final.

It is difficult to see team representatives outnumbering the press at a news conference prior to a World Cup semi-final, lest we become navel-gazers and assign too much weight to mainstream media. Rob Walter, the head coach of South Africa, showed up with a security guard and a media representative to address a single journalist. Though South Africa’s World Cup campaign began similarly on Long Island, this is not the first time it has happened. Still, there’s something unsettling about a semi-final at the T20 World Cup 2024 generating little excitement in one of the cricket world’s most fervent hubs.

Almost one of the most fervent centres, that is. The Brian Lara Cricket Academy is situated on the outskirts of San Fernando, 50 kilometres away from Port-of-Spain. The private club that owns Queen’s Park Oval has fallen behind the times and refused to adapt, but moving such a major event from the iconic location in the centre of Port-of-Spain to a venue that can’t accommodate as many people is like chopping off your nose to spite your face.

Next is the scheduling, which leaves teams with no time for practice. After arriving on Monday night, South Africa at least held an optional training session; nevertheless, Afghanistan completed their qualification late into Tuesday morning in preparation for a match on Wednesday. Please pardon them for skipping practice the day before the semifinal.

It’s not as though the ICC would have allowed anyone to see the training in any case. Two of the rare international fields where spectators may view the nets are MCG in Melbourne and Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Both offer valuable lessons to be learned.

In spite of all these issues and more, the World Cup has been an enormous success. On television, that is. Is that what the sport’s future holds? Simply put, the grounds’ supporters aren’t worth the trouble. It doesn’t appear that the cricket World Cup will need to have the funfair atmosphere that other World Cups of sports do.

Not that it matters to South Africa. “This is an empty hall, which is a good sign, I think,” Walter joked when asked if it felt like a semi-final.

They are said to freeze under the spotlight, so maybe it’s best to keep under the radar. “It’s not really about the press but about the occasion, isn’t it?” he said before putting the press in its proper position.

You can’t fool yourself into thinking it’s simply another game, as Rob Walter did mention. It is preferable to accept it and the feelings that accompany it. How does it show up? How do you train differently? Do you have trouble getting a good night’s sleep?

Walter made the same joke, saying that since he never gets “very good” sleep, he is not the ideal person to discuss sleep quality. “I think there’s always an energy that you can feel that’s tangible when it comes to a semi-final,” he continued. “Anyone participating in any activity who reaches this stage of the competition will likely experience a range of feelings, including exhilaration and worry. Therefore, all that really needs to be done is accept that fact, acknowledge it, and decide what to do with it. In tomorrow’s game, we still aim to play our best cricket during the crucial times.”

People believe that South Africa is different this time around since they have been winning close games, but this is a handy, nearly unfalsifiable argument because if they don’t win the title, it will be said again that they didn’t win “when it mattered the most”. Walter declined to contest that claim, stating that they should not bear the responsibility for any previous close misses.

“The near misses in the past, they belong to the people who missed them,” stated Walter. “This team is, to be honest, a different team. Whatever belongs to us, we own it. We’ve crossed the line in this event, so that’s our closest reflection point. Thus, that is what we consider.

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That’s just what Jonathan Trott, an Englishman by nationality, an Afghanistan coach, and a fellow South African by birth is concentrating on. Shortly after defeating Bangladesh, Trott declared, “We go into the semi-final with no scars or history with regards to semi-finals.” “This is unfamiliar ground for us. We simply intend to go all out and give it our best. There are no preconceived notions about it all or previous records of success or failure in the semifinals. We are up against a fresh challenge, which I believe makes us a formidable team in the semifinals with nothing to lose and plenty of pressure on the other team.”

That seems like a needling attempt at the semi-final stage.