After the heavy defeat by New Zealand in the second One-Day International, South African cricket is at the crossroads.

Sunday’s loss was one of the worst performances by South Africa in a very long time. Losing by eight wickets and six overs remaining is a hiding by any standards, and it is something that has happened too often in recent times. It must be a concern for the team’s brains trust.

All parties involved in South African cricket must sit down and have a serious chat about what direction our cricket is going to take over the next few years.

New Zealand remain a good ODI side and even though they are missing key players on this tour, I don’t believe South Africa were overconfident or underestimated them. Losing in itself is not the issue. No team win every game they play, but it’s the way South Africa are losing that is of concern. There doesn’t seem to be any fight in the team.

Something has to be done to stop the rot. I don’t see a sparkle among the players. The talent is there, but something is clearly wrong somewhere. It looks like the problem is a combination of the players and the management staff.

Maybe they need to bring back someone like Gary Kirsten on a more frequent basis to help identify the problems and work with the players.

Do we have the right coaches at the moment? Are there hassles with the players? Not only are we missing Faf du Plessis’s stability in the middle order, but there is no consistency in our batting, bowling or fielding.

It’s difficult to see exactly what is wrong from the outside looking in, but what is clear is that something needs to change.

South Africa obviously need to win well on Wednesday. But while a victory would certainly help, it won’t solve all our problems.