As the selection tenets of yore fade, guesswork rules

SA cricket is exceptionally fortunate to have two men as selfless and dedicated to their jobs as Shukri Conrad and Rob Walter, head coaches of the Test and limited overs teams. After many years of administrative chaos SA’s professional cricketers had lost all faith and trust in those running the national game.

The only way to regain their trust was to give full control of the national teams to the newly appointed coaches, at least in terms of selection. Conrad and Walter couldn’t do the logistics or the rehab, but at least SA’s players knew teams were being chosen, within the legislated guidelines, by people whose only concern was winning.

As keen as they both were to maintain the status quo in which the responsibility for selection rested solely with each of them, that scenario will become impossible to manage. This sensible, short-term measure will soon become unmanageable and unsustainable.

The traditional selection criteria that have existed for decades are disappearing by the month. After Tuesday’s T20 International against India at St George’s Park, there will be just Thursday’s final match of the series at the Wanderers before Walter has to name his squad for the T20 World Cup in June 2024.

So many long-established conventions of selection have been abandoned in recent years, and the remainder will follow soon. “Select on form, not reputation ”— forget that. “Prioritise domestic form ”— gone. “Don’t confuse runs and wickets in other formats ”— impossible these days.

Even if Conrad and Walter were able to solo-navigate their way around the shifting schedules and obstacles, more of their job will become based on educated guesswork and instinct. Conrad said last week that he “consulted widely” before assembling his squads — “I’d be mad not to ”— but there is an unavoidable downside to having a single man in charge. Natural prejudice.

As much as the players are grateful for the trust that now exists, it won’t be long before that turns to distrust when the perception forms that the two coaches have “favourites”, either as individual cricketers or certain “types” of cricketers. Sometimes these biases will be conscious, but there will also be the subconscious prejudice of which everyone is guilty.

There was a story at the weekend that former Test captain, Dean Elgar, was considering retiring from Test cricket after the two matches against India because Conrad is

“looking elsewhere”. Elgar, 36, is the leading run-scorer in the Four-Day Series for the Titans. Conrad denied his relationship with Elgar is strained but there was no comment from the batsman himself.

Conrad is sensibly looking to the future, but there are two Tests against New Zealand in February that need to be won with the most inexperienced squad since the early 1990s, and if Elgar — on current form — isn’t selected, the message sent to the rest of the country’s ambitious players will be: “If you’re not ‘in’ with Shukri, you’ve got no chance, whatever you do on the field”.

Walter, too, faces an impossible task — perhaps even more so. He admitted that form in January’s SA20 competition will “play a big role” in deciding the composition of his squad for the T20 World Cup — but after that he will be watching a handful of SA players in the Indian Premier League and various other domestic competitions around the world.

Tony de Zorzi is one of Conrad’s favourite players. When he called him up to the national squad last season, he described him (unhelpfully) as “a potential captain in the future”. It’s not really a label you’d like around your neck before you’ve made your debut.

Walter said before the World Cup that Sisanda Magala “would be in my team every time if fit”. It was a well-meaning boost for a player who had just been jettisoned from the squad because his fitness record made him “high-risk”, but it may also have sent the wrong message to others aspiring to take his place.

How will Walter judge the form of Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw in the IPL if they spend two months on the bench, as happened for most of the last tournament?

The present situation is right, for now. But there are good reasons that every previous “one-man supremo” regime has been replaced by a committee, in every country in the world. Three heads are better than one, provided the other two are equally selfless and motivated by the national good rather than provincial bias.

Conrad and Walter are both in the early days of their contracts but, in time, they may agree that forming a selection team with two others, though retaining the casting vote, could make their lives easier and the selection process fairer.