Titans feeling the absence of international stars in domestic cricket

The Titans have lost three of their opening four matches in the ongoing CSA T20 Challenge, going down to the Warriors, Boland, and, most recently, Western Province.

Faul says they have been hamstrung by losing their biggest players to the Proteas – who have been on a lengthy Asian tour, plus the SA-A Tour in India, as well as the Hong Kong Sixes.

"To be honest, we haven't played well, and we have to take responsibility for that. Our senior players haven't stepped up, which doesn't help, but then again, we are a little thin in terms of staff.

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Faul bemoaned that they seem to be the victims of their own success by producing some of the best players for the national team.

He feels that Cricket South Africa should have done things differently in terms of scheduling so as not to put domestic cricket at a disadvantage.

"I don't think they've designed this deliberately, but CSA have come up with this system where the teams that deliver the most players to SAA and Proteas actually get penalised.

"It is something we are discussing with them. I just don't think it's fair and domestic cricket is not done any favours."

They actually had a promising start when they won the opening match of this year’s competition against the Tuskers, which they edged by nine runs with three balls to spare. Faul says it was downhill from there.

Their next game is on Friday against North West, and Faul hopes to have some of his players back. He will still be without Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, and Aiden Markram, who will be involved in the first of two tests against India from that day.