Gibson lines up new assistants

Dale Benkenstein‚ Malibongwe Maketa and Justin Ontong have been sounded out as assistants to Proteas coach Ottis Gibson.

Maketa‚ the Warriors head coach‚ is expected to become Gibson’s assistant, while Benkenstein and Ontong are expected to be named as batting and fielding coaches.

The former West Indian international all-rounder and England bowling coach said in October, he would be seeking to have his own coaching staff‚ which meant the crew consisting of Adrian Birrell‚ Claude Henderson‚ Neil McKenzie and Charl Langeveldt was going to be rendered redundant.

Gibson kept the group for the Bangladesh tour in October, where the national team won all the matches.

With bowling being his area of expertise‚ Gibson had said he would be taking care of the bowling part of the coaching set-up‚ leaving the other vacancies to be filled by others.

Benkenstein‚ who is the first team cricket coach at Hilton College in KwaZulu-Natal‚ is expected to take up the batting coach position.

Having had a successful playing career with Durham‚ Benkenstein cut his coaching teeth with Hampshire‚ who he guided to two T20 finals days and promotion to the County Championship division one in his two-and-a-half years in charge before leaving the county in July 2016 for family reasons. Benkenstein was an expert captain for both Durham and the Dolphins‚ but his career coincided with the late Hansie Cronjé’s captaincy stint and his Proteas career was limited to 23 oneday internationals.

Maketa was appointed as Warriors head coach two years ago and has done well with minimal resources. The Warriors took part in the domestic limited overs finals last season (50 over Momentum 1-Day Cup and the Cricket SA T20 Challenge)‚ and lost both to the Titans by 236 and six runs, respectively.

Ontong is an interesting addition considering he is still an active first-class player. He represented the Proteas in two Tests and last played for the Cape Cobras in a Sunfoil Series match against the Dolphins in late October.