Kagiso Rabada To Face 'Drug Ban' Sledging During WTC Final? Ex-South Africa Star Says "Naive..."

Former South Africa cricket team batter Daryll Cullinan believes that it will be naive to think that Kagiso Rabada will not be sledged over his drug ban during the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia. Rabada missed a major chunk of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 after testing positive for a recreational drug. While he did play for Gujarat Titans in the later half of the competition, his performances were far from impressive. Cullinan said that Rabada should be ready to deal with comments about his drug ban and advised him on concentrate on his game instead.

"Unfortunately, Rabada is going to deal with, for the rest of his career, comments being made relating to off-the-field matters, not only on the field but also by spectators. Only he can deal with it. The best would be just to take wickets. That'll settle that side of things too, but I think it'd be naive to think that comments won't be made and his attention brought to it, but it's going to be something that he's going to have to live with for the rest of his career, even if he's taking wickets," he told Hindustan Times.

"But that's something that he has to face. I think he'll be fine with it, but I don't think any cricketer or person would like to be in a working environment, be reminded about your indiscretions, so he's going to have to live with it. As I said, good performances will go a long way to putting that to bed, but as long as he's playing cricket, he'll always be reminded of it," the former South Africa batter added.

Cullinan also said that the bowling attack will have to perform brilliantly if South Africa want to win the WTC Final. He specially emphasised on the pace attack that has been South Africa's main strength.

"The key players for me would be South Africa's pace attack. I think both teams have good pace attacks. South Africa have good variation, both left and right arm. They have a real consistent spinner in Keshav Maharaj. Ultimately, South Africa's strength is in their pace attack," he concluded.

Topics mentioned in this article

Daryll Cullinan Kagiso Rabada Australia Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team Cricket