Ken Borland

Dale Steyn not only always played his cricket with immense passion and skill, but with enormous soul, and now that the life of a professional cricketer is no longer fun for him, one of the greatest fast bowlers that ever played the game announced his retirement from all formats on Tuesday.

Steyn’s Test record ranks amongst the greatest from any era. In 93 Tests, South Africa’s leading wicket-taker claimed 439 wickets an average of just 22.95 and a strike-rate of 42.30.

It is that strike-rate and his record away from home (164 wickets in 37 Tests at 24.23) that sets him apart. Of the 79 bowlers who have taken 200 Test wickets, only compatriot Kagiso Rabada (41.20) has a better strike-rate. And no other fast bowler has made as big an impact on the subcontinent, Steyn taking 92 wickets in 22 matches there at an average of 24.11.

“It feels like I actually retired a long time ago. Not playing regularly, you lose the passion. You train for six weeks and sit in quarantine for 10 days to play in a tournament that gets cancelled a week later. There’s no fun in travelling anymore and I think half the reason I did so well overseas was because I enjoyed travelling, meeting people, enjoying different places and learning.

“Fitness-wise I have no issues, no niggles, so I am able to play still, I just don’t want to in that sort of environment that is now the ‘new normal’. The IPL last year wasn’t great with not one person in the crowd, and then I went to a couple of other T20 leagues – Sri Lanka was very difficult and Pakistan was the same thing; bubbles get breached and you have to leave,” Steyn told The Citizen on Tuesday.

While the 38-year-old admitted that he will miss the game too much to stay away for too long, for now he is looking forward to the freedom to enjoy all the outdoors and fun pursuits he enjoys.

“I will still be involved somewhere because cricket is all I know. I have skills to offer that I believe can help a good player become great, I just need to learn how to do that. But for now I might just let cricket slide a bit, I want to enjoy life for a while. As a player, I felt my hands were tied – I couldn’t just go skydiving because it wasn’t allowed by my contract.

“Covid has taken away a lot, but I’m looking forward to having the freedom every normal person has. I’ve always been with team-mates since I was 13/14 years old and I will miss that. But I’ve still got my dogs!” Steyn said.

Tabraiz Shamsi is the sort of cheerful fellow who is usually lighting up a room and the champion spinner has been a particularly bright ray of sunshine since rejoining the Proteas squad for their flight to Sri Lanka, where they are now preparing for their ODI series that starts on Thursday.

Shamsi was not with the team when they held a training camp in Potchefstroom earlier this week, because he was playing in The Hundred in England. That was an enjoyable experience for him and he has also received the great news that he will be playing in the remainder of this year’s IPL, when it resumes next month in the United Arab Emirates, for the Rajasthan Royals. It is no less than the world’s No.1-ranked T20 bowler deserves and it is inexplicable that his only previous IPL contract was in 2016 with Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Apart from all those happy developments though, Shamsi says he is always just delighted to get back into the Proteas environment, whatever some people have said about its culture at present.

“The Hundred was good, it’s like a much faster version of T20 and I’ve picked up how to save time in T20 just by showing more urgency in the field. And I enjoy bowling a lot, I don’t like long breaks, so it was good to be playing. And now to be signed by the Royals is special, I’m very excited because I’ve never played in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. It will be nice to get some inside info on those pitches before the T20 World Cup.

“But the excitement of playing for South Africa again is something different, just the thought of it made me smile even in between all the turbulence on the flight that had me sweating and holding on to my chair!  These are my people, I have my boys, the guys I grew up playing with and against, and that’s what makes it special playing for the Proteas,” Shamsi said on Friday.

While Shamsi’s outstanding bowling in the West Indies and Ireland has stolen the limelight for himself, the 31-year-old is adamant that he has a very good Proteas attack around him.

“Our confidence levels are obviously high and I honestly believe we have one of the best bowling attacks in the world. The talent is there, we’re just a little inexperienced at international level. But the skill is there, have no doubt. The more we play together the better we will get.

“Personally, with the year I’ve had, it’s like living your dream. But I’m never completely happy with the way I’m bowling, even after the West Indies and Ireland tours. I’m constantly working behind the scenes and I’m also hoping to contribute something with the bat. I spent a month on the sidelines during the Test series in the West Indies and I spent it in the nets … so much so that I got a batting niggle!” Shamsi said.

Enoch Nkwe resigned this week as the Proteas assistant coach and one can only have sympathy for one of this country’s best young coaches in terms of how his experiences with the national team have gone.

It all started in August 2019 when he had to go as Interim Team Director to India, replacing the axed Ottis Gibson after South Africa came an awful cropper in the World Cup in England that year. Nkwe had a new-look team with several of their stalwarts of previous years being absent, taking on superpowers India on their home turf and at their best.

The Proteas did very well to draw the T20 series after one match was washed out, but the Tests were a disaster as South Africa were destroyed by margins of 203 runs, an innings and 137 runs and an innings and 202 runs. It was the first time since losing to Australia in 1935/36 that South Africa had lost consecutive matches by an innings.

None of which should have been held against Nkwe. He came in at short notice, and with the experience of just one franchise season of coaching – albeit a hugely successful one with three trophies being won by the Highveld Lions/Jozi Stars – behind him. And the team was in such a state of transition and a poor mental space that even the best coach in the world would probably not have done much better. It was akin to a suicide mission and this columnist expressed his concerns at the time.

In December that year, Graeme Smith was appointed director of cricket and one of his most urgent tasks was to assemble a coaching team to take on another superpower, England, whose tour was by then just two weeks away. In Cricket South Africa’s review of the disastrous last year, it emerged that the players felt the need to have a coach with greater international playing experience, given how much wisdom had been lost in their ranks after the retirements of Hashim Amla, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers.

And so the decision was made to appoint Mark Boucher, one of the Proteas’ greatest players and a coach who had won five trophies in the last three seasons with the Titans.

Nkwe was named assistant coach, which was viewed as a demotion in some quarters. So in order for this new arrangement to work it was clear that Boucher and Nkwe would have to co-operate when it came to the strategy and management of the team.

I personally had discussions with Smith about how important it was for Nkwe to not be the usual sort of assistant coach – more involved in throwing balls and running drills than helping direct the actual tactical and technical decisions made for the national team. For the sake of transformation, he had to be empowered. By nature, Nkwe is not an assistant coach, he is a head coach, that is his stature and he showed his capabilities while at the Wanderers.

By saying in his resignation statement to the CSA Board that he was dissatisfied with “the functioning and culture” of the Proteas team environment, it is clear that Boucher has failed in his responsibility to fully utilise the 38-year-old Nkwe’s talents. And so one can hardly blame Nkwe for going his own way, especially with the whole atmosphere around South African cricket being so uncivil at the moment.

It will be a huge loss to South African cricket if Nkwe is chased away from our game. He already has many international contacts through his coaching in the Netherlands and let us hope he returns to our fold soon rather than popping up in the coaching team of some other international outfit.

In this regard, South African cricket could once again have taken a leaf out of the Springboks’ books. Backline coach Mzwandile Stick was a target of awful, unwarranted abuse when he was on Allister Coetzee’s coaching staff, but he is now clearly a rising star. And that’s because he has been properly empowered and backed by Rassie Erasmus.

Stick gives press conferences every couple of weeks when the Springboks are in camp, allowing him to showcase his knowledge and passion for the team. By my reckoning, Nkwe has only been put forward by the Proteas twice this year.

One will not often find a young head coach who would not feel threatened by bringing in assistants who are more experienced or better-known than himself, but it speaks volumes for the confidence and character of Central Gauteng Lions mentor Wandile Gwavu that he has fully embraced having JP Duminy and Piet Botha as his batting and bowling coaches.

Duminy played 46 Tests, 199 ODIs and 81 T20s for South Africa, so he has a wealth of knowledge to offer the Lions batsmen, while Botha is vastly experienced in his own right as a coach and is highly-rated when it comes to helping the bowlers. Gwavu said it is not just the players who will be learning from his assistants.

“It’s a superstar coaching staff with JP, Piet and Prasanna Agoram as our analyst. It’s not only going to be great for the players but also for the growth of the head coach, I’m keen to take the learnings on and it will make me better as well. I know I lack international playing experience and the way JP speaks about cricket, I know we totally share the same philosophies.

“I’ve played under Piet Botha, we have a very strong relationship and I rate him as one of the best bowling coaches around. He’s very good with youngsters and Sisanda Magala, Lutho Sipamla and Anrich Nortje have all come through under his watch. And Prasanna is one of the best, if not the best, analysts, so we have world-class people in our camp,” the 34-year-old Gwavu said on Tuesday.

That the Lions have secured the services of Duminy, one of the Western Cape’s favourite sons, is due to the initiative of CEO Jono Leaf-Wright. The team will certainly benefit from one of the deepest thinkers in the game.

“It was an opportunity I didn’t really think of until I had a conversation with Jono during an ODI I was commentating on against Pakistan here. And then when I heard him speak at a coach’s forum I knew I was in,  you can just sense the trust and integrity. I certainly believe I can contribute. It’s mostly about having conversations about game-plans and driving certain mindsets.

“It’s about talking through their processes with the players, but it’s also about the coaches in Gauteng and telling them what happens at the top level. I don’t have all the answers, but hopefully I can ask good questions and it’s about empowering, encouraging and uplifting the batsmen. It all starts with mindset and trying to throw the first punch. It will be a learning experience for me too,” Duminy said at the Wanderers on Tuesday.