Tour bedevilled by insecurity and disruption
Conspiracy theorists could be forgiven for imagining there was an element of predetermination about this ill-fated tour on which far more things have gone wrong than might be regarded as “normal”.
The passing away of coach Russell Domingo’s mother on Monday was the worst of all and, as life and death tend to do, provided the bleakest of perspective on sporting performance.
There has been something “not quite right” from the very outset, back in the middle of May. It seems a strange thing to say, because there have been so many changes in personnel over the three different squads, but an “atmosphere” can’t linger — or can it?
In a sporting context, yes it can. You only need to look at SA’s record at International Cricket Council global events for evidence of an infectious state of mind transcending generations, never mind a variety of squads in the same changing room.
If “doubt” in certain situations can be considered almost hereditary, imagine how pervasive the uncertainty will be with half of the squad not knowing what their immediate future holds. And it really is almost half.
It would be unfair to start with AB de Villiers, because he is really just a part of it, but it has been more than a year that his teammates in at least two of the three formats have not known whether he was going to turn up or not.
It was more than a little galling for stand-in Test captain Dean Elgar to be asked before the Lord’s Test how the team would cope without De Villiers.
“We’ve moved on,” he replied tersely.
There was speculation that Dale Steyn might make a late fitness charge towards the Test series and then, of course, there was the uncertainty over whether Faf du Plessis would return in time from the birth of his first child.
Like workers in any commercial environment, sportsmen perform much better in a stable environment in which they feel valued and wanted. Except sportsmen need it far more than most professionals because they are, at best, on a short-term contract and can be out of a job after just a couple of bad days at the office.
That is why coaches and captains are so important. The best ones persuade their players that job security is not an issue, or at least not one worth worrying about.
Their job naturally becomes harder if they, too, are uncertain about their job. Which is exactly how Domingo started this tour — with the knowledge that a new coach will be appointed immediately afterwards.
But it is not just Domingo; it is effectively his whole team. Assistant coach Adrian Birrell, bowling coaches Charl Langeveldt and Claude Henderson, batting coach Neil McKenzie, physiotherapist Brandon Jackson, trainer Greg King and perhaps even longserving manager Mohammed Moosajee (although it is unlikely that a new coach would insist on his choice of manager).
Richard Pybus and Rob Walter are believed to be among the applicants so far, from their respective positions as director of cricket for the West Indies Cricket Board and head coach of the Otago Volts in New Zealand. Lions head coach Geoff Toyana has offered his name for consideration to the interview panel, which includes former coaches Gary Kirsten and Eric Simons.
With respect to the many difficulties that come with every international coaching position, head coach of the Proteas is the toughest of the lot. It may be the reason that the list of applicants is so short and that former captain Graeme Smith was asked to put his name into the hat.
All the while, virtually the entire management and coaching staff have inevitably spent time on this tour wondering about the future, looking over their shoulders and perhaps even “putting the word out” in this most fertile of cricket lands.
That is not to say that any of them has not committed themselves to the best of their ability or devoted themselves to the job at hand. It is also not denying that the reasons they were so nastily thrashed at Lord’s are that they gave Joe Root (190) lives on five and 16 in the first innings and Jonny Bairstow (51) a life on seven in the second innings.
They had a couple of horror sessions with the ball on the first day and there were four scores in the 50s and a 48. They contributed hugely to their own fate.
Real-life workers do not always get the office atmosphere they would like. In that respect, the cricketers are no different. It is just that their mistakes are magnified on a vast stage and the rest of us watch and shake our heads.
Something dramatic will have to happen to prevent this Test series from slipping into free fall.