Ken Borland

There is an unfortunate tendency in South African sport that a coach sometimes cannot win whether his team are losing or winning. We’ve seen it before with former Springbok coach Peter de Villiers and now with current Proteas coach Russell Domingo.

It’s the unfortunate attitude that if a team is losing – as the Proteas were for 2015 and the first half of 2016 – then it must be the coach’s fault, but if they are winning, as Domingo’s charges are currently and the Springboks did under De Villiers in 2009, then it must have nothing to do with the coach and be all the players’ doing!

If people are going to blame and criticise the coach during the lean times then they have to credit and praise the coach when things are going well. His influence cannot just extend in the one direction.

Domingo gets to be seen way less on television than the Springbok rugby coach, so perhaps he has less opportunity to convey his knowledge of the game, but it was disturbing last weekend when Cricket South Africa dropped what can only be termed a bombshell. They were going to be taking applications for his position and he would need to reapply himself. It’s like being in a relationship and being told “it’s time we see other people”.

I have been a critic of Domingo in the past, believing he was no longer able to get the best out of the Proteas, but their form in the last six months has been superb and clearly the coach has them all pulling in the same direction.

A 5-0 limited-overs whitewash of Australia and a Test series win Down Under, without AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn, rank amongst some of the finest achievements in South African cricket history, and so far Sri Lanka have been dealt with ruthlessly, save for the T20s when some experimentation took place.

But CSA believe now is the time to say we need to start looking for another coach!

I agree, depending on how results go in the Champions Trophy and the Tests in England, that August may be time for a change given that Domingo will have been in the job for four years, but what if he wins the ICC event and then beats the Poms on their home turf? If he wants to continue, surely he would be the obvious choice?

Sure, you have to plan ahead and put out some feelers to see who Domingo’s successor will be, particularly if things go badly in England. But you don’t have to announce to the whole world that you are no longer sure about the guy who is currently doing a great job with the team.

Having been told quite clearly that uncertainty about the future was a major reason for players and coaches leaving South Africa, you would have thought CSA would be doing everything in their power to reassure a Proteas team and management that they have security, given how well they have been doing.

The talk from official sources has been that CSA don’t want to create the impression that Domingo will automatically just keep getting contract extensions – it’s all to do with the fine print of the labour regulations apparently – but the gap between the end of the trip to England (the last Test ends on August 8) and the start of the new summer with the first Test against Bangladesh starting on September 28 is surely long enough to sort out whatever the decision is.

Of course the list of possible replacements needs to be sussed out, but why does the post of Proteas head coach need to be advertised? Surely the successor to Domingo should be headhunted?

Particularly since the obvious next coach is working just across the road from the CSA offices at the Wanderers.

Former Proteas pace bowler Andre Nel is the new coach of the Easterns team and says you’re not nearly as likely to hear him roaring from off the field as you were likely to hear him on the field during his playing days.

“It’s hard not being as fiery, but my job is to understand and manage the players, look after them well and get the best out of them. I’m pretty laid back, but discipline, respect and never giving up are things I won’t compromise on. I want them to be fiery,” Nel says.

The 37-year-old, who played 36 Tests and 79 ODIs for South Africa, has been coaching at school and academy level and sees the Easterns appointment as his breakthrough first job at senior level.

“When you’ve played with that much passion, it’s hard to just take yourself out of competition. For me it was more about passion than aggression and so once I stopped playing I started coaching at schools and the academy. My biggest advantage is that I know and understand how the players think and what their needs are. And they respect me too because they know I’ve done it myself, I know how cricket works,” Nel says.

Nel said his long-time mentor, Ray Jennings, would be helping him at Easterns, especially in terms of setting up structures and improving the discipline.

“The big thing at Easterns is that there’s no special schools identified, we need to pick three or four feeders and try and develop those. Plus we need tertiary institutions to keep players in the system and create an academy that works.

“It will take time, but it’s a lot more than just coaching, we’ve got to get the structures right. We’ve also already spoken about club facilities, which are poor and don’t give players the best opportunity to show what they can do. And we need to make Willowmoore Park somewhere where we can proud of too. Others hate coming there, but we must be proud of our office,” Nel says.

And, in terms of on-the-field action and his own area of expertise – bowling, Nel says for him the yorker is a much under-utilised skill.

“Batting skill has moved so far forward with guys playing reverse-sweeps and laps, but bowling skill seems to be standing still. The slower-ball bouncer and slower yorker are both old news and we need to try and figure out what we can do to bring a different dimension to bowling.

“We need to be able to nail the yorker, but nobody in South Africa seems able to bowl it on demand. We’re a bit predictable; yes, the yorker is hard to bowl, but it’s a dying art.

“The laws are all conducive to batting, so maybe in the powerplay the bowlers should be able to choose whether they want to bowl with a new or an old ball … ” Nel says.

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It is not yet clear whether Frans Ludeke will be catching the next train out of Loftus Versfeld for a permanent exit, but the Bulls coach has stood down from his SuperRugby and Currie Cup duties with immediate effect after eight years in charge.

The inconsistency of the Highveld Lions batting was once again to the fore as they bowed out of the CSA T20 Challenge in the playoff against the Warriors, and was the story of their campaign according to coach Geoff Toyana.

The Lions could only muster 136 for seven in their 20 overs against the Eastern Cape side, everyone in the top six reaching double figures but nobody scoring more than Reeza Hendricks’ run-a-ball 32, as the trio of Warriors spinners dominated the middle overs.

“It was disappointing and not good batting, we didn’t push through. The whole season we’ve been falling apart in the middle overs and losing wickets. The absence of Alviro Petersen’s experience was a big loss,” Toyana told The Citizen on Wednesday.

Opener Rassie van der Dussen was the only consistent Lions batsman through the tournament, scoring 345 runs, including three half-centuries – exactly half of the total amount scored by the team.

While the bowling of Bjorn Fortuin, Hardus Viljoen, Aaron Phangiso and Eddie Leie was excellent throughout, Viljoen lacked the support of another reliable pace bowler, with Dwaine Pretorius unable to match his form for the Proteas in the six games he played.

But Toyana pointed to the character showed by a young side and the occasional performances of inexperienced players like Fortuin (more often than not), Hendricks, Nicky van den Bergh and Wiaan Mulder as indications of a bright future.

“There have been lessons learnt and I’m quite happy with the whole competition, for a young side to come through to the playoffs. The bowlers were the highlight, they were superb, with the spinners choking the batsmen in the middle overs.

“It’s been good to give youngsters that opportunity and they will play better for it in the future. To lose the first two games with bonus points and then win three on the bounce to give ourselves a chance again showed their character, especially beating a quality Cobras side in Paarl. We fell short in the end, but I’m happy with the team,” Toyana said.