 |  Before the injuries, we were a tight unit with the roles clearly defined |
South Africa coach Mickey Arthur has described the tour of Australia as the hardest time of his professional life. "It was toughest learning curve of my life," said Arthur, whose team lost the Test series 2-0 and won just three of eight one-day internationals.
"The tour was not a huge success but the team must learn. They can go home and sulk or stand up and be counted."
He blamed injuries for some of the team's problems, particularly when it came to bowling in the one-dayers.
Without strike bowlers Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel and Jacques Kallis, the team really struggled to restrict Sri Lanka and Australia to low scores.
Arthur said: "The back-up bowling was a real problem. We had a whole attack out with injury and someone like Andrew Hall, who is normally on the fringes, was leading the attack.
"Before the injuries, we were a tight unit with the roles clearly defined. But once we lost players, all the roles had to change."
MMIX
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