Pointers for use of SA coach’s time
• Watch this and not that, and drink this and that ...
Ottis Gibson had his first day on the job as SA’s coach this week, and there are only seven more before the start of the Test series against Bangladesh.
Ottis Gibson had his first day on the job as SA’s coach this week, and there are only six more before the start of the Test series against Bangladesh.
What does Gibson need to do with that time?
● Watch some cricket: The domestic scene is a long way from what it was when Gibson marked out his run-up for Border, Gauteng and Griqualand West in the 1990s.
Reducing the number of teams playing in the top flight and creating the franchise system was supposed to strengthen and professionalise the game in this country. Instead, the umbilical cord between domestic cricket and the international scene has been all but cut.
● Do not watch rugby: Gibson has owned up to watching the Springboks’ risible impression of an international rugby team in their 57-0 shellacking by the All Blacks at the weekend. Stop right there, coach. Do not go wasting your time on any more of that nonsense. Cricket in this country has its problems, but it does not have rugby’s.
SA were poor in England this winter. Gibson, who served as England’s bowling coach, knows that only too well. But there remains a hardness at SA’s centre — and that has apparently been drummed out of their rugby equivalent — that Gibson would do well to acquaint himself with as soon as possible.
● Find some fast bowlers: No Dale Steyn. No Vernon Philander. No Chris Morris. All are out with injuries. At this rate, Gibson might be tempted to dig deep in his luggage for a set of whites from his own fast-bowling days and suit up.
Easy tiger. SA has never been short of quality quicks and with Morné Morkel, Kagiso Rabada, Duanne Olivier, Beuran Hendricks, Dane Paterson, Andile Phehlukwayo and Junior Dala to pick from — and Lungi Ngidi almost back from injury — the home side should not struggle to test the Bangladeshi batsmen.
● Have a drink with Faf: If a cricket team was a ship, it would
sail or sink on the quality and depth of the relationship between captain and coach.
SA are fortunate that both Gibson and Faf du Plessis are thoughtful and easy-going okes with plenty of space in their personalities for differing points of view. So, it is not difficult to imagine them getting along.
Conventional wisdom says one of those personalities needs to be bigger for the relationship to work properly. Right now, the stronger partner would seem to be Du Plessis.
● Have a coffee with Hash: Noone in cricket is more revered than Hashim Amla.
Amla has reached a century only once in his last 25 completed innings for SA across all formats. His gift for playing the unplayable delivery to parts of the ground it has no right to be played to, and for days on end, would seem to be fading.
Amla is 34 and he has a young family — he has a life beyond cricket. So, how much does he have left in the tank?
Gibson needs to know.