No talk of the past for South Africa

Ask the pavement-pounder who keeps going at a good pace even though there is no race being run and the secret scribe who adds another sentence to a story they're writing only for themselves why they keep at it and you will find they have a common cause. They do it to compete against someone: themselves.

That's who South Africa are up against over the next three months and it may be the only way they can win a World Cup. "We are own biggest threats when it comes to World Cups," Vernon Philander said. "Hopefully we can overcome that this time. It's about finding that combinations and finding the comfort in whatever whatever we do."

And about forgetting.

South Africa's past is punctuated with six failed attempts to win a World Cup, less than England and New Zealand, but thought to be more traumatic. Unlike those teams, South Africa continually face questions about their record months before a major tournament.

They are asked to come up with reasons for performances they were not part of, to explain how they will be better than their predecessors and to go into detail about the kinds of mental shifts they are making that allow them to do that. That is as tiring as it sounds so it is no surprise that AB de Villiers has had enough.

"The guys that are here, that were part of the past experiences know what happened. There's nothing to discuss at all. Except that we haven't won a World Cup and we want to do that," de Villiers said. "There is no need to discuss anything about choking or failing or we've done this wrong or we had too many psychologists there or too many fitness trainers there."

Instead of looking back at all the missed opportunities, they are trying to focus on the one that presents itself now. "We are covering all bases, we are trying to prepare as best as possible to give ourselves the best chance of winning this World Cup. We are doing what we believe is best for the team now and if things go our way, we are going to win that World Cup."

But they accept that things may not go their way. "There are five or six teams that could vie for the position," Hashim Amla said. "Pakistan, India, Australia, England, New Zealand - sorry to name everybody, but at the same token everybody has done pretty well at World Cups. It's going to be a tough World Cup for everybody."

So tough that South Africa started planning for it six months ago, long before everybody else. "We started talking about the World Cup when we had about 25 or 30 ODIs to play and we've got 10 left," de Villiers said.

Half of those 10 take place in Australia, the other half at home and their aim is to win most, but not necessarily all of them. "It will be massive to win it. But it's also important to know that it's not the be-all and end-all. It's not a bad thing to lose a couple of games over here so we know this an area we can improve but for us to win here will give us a lot of confidence going into the tournament, a lot of momentum and a lot of belief," de Villiers. "The three things I mentioned is exactly what we need to win a World Cup," he said.

That, and the ability to overcome their own doubts when it matters most.