Saturday Dispatch Coaches feel extreme heat
IN the sporting world it is wise not to take anything for granted, especially if you are a coach on borrowed time.
In South Africa we have two coaches – one just about on his way out and the other with a slight breathing space.
Cricket and rugby are two of the biggest sporting codes in the country – football is the other – and expectations on both the teams and the coaches have reached pulverising levels.
Take the case of Proteas mentor Russell Domingo.
He has had a reasonably good run with the national cricket side.
But despite all of his achievements he has yet to rid his side of the “chokers” label every time they ascend to the upper rungs of top international competition.
The cricket fraternity had hoped there would be some sort of breakthrough from the side at the Champions Trophy tournament in the UK last weekend.
It was not an easy task with eight of the best teams in world cricket competing in a tournament viewed as a dress-rehearsal for the next World Cup.
But Domingo’s men suffered a crushing defeat to eventual finalists India at The Oval last Sunday.
Their performance was so dismissal that one commentator described them as having “beaten themselves”.
The game also marked the end of Domingo’s stint as coach.
Cricket SA has already put out a lengthy advert for a new man.
Domingo can apply, but now seems in two minds to do so.
CSA insists the placing of the advert had nothing to do with their faith in Domingo, it was simply procedural.
Domingo has otherwise not done too badly and the players want him to stay.
If CSA feels differently it could upset the team.
Meanwhile in the Springbok camp there is not as much angst– for now at least.
There was much speculation that coach Allister Coetzee was a dead man walking and likely to be offloaded if the Boks failed to turn the corner after some horrendous results in the past months.
But the Boks beating the visiting French international side last week in Pretoria in the first clash of a three-match series gave a hint of a Bok resurgence.
Of course, one swallow does not a summer make.
Much depends on the outcome of the Boks’ second match against France in Durban today.
What makes this game unpredictable is that France faced the Boks in the last game without some of their class players.
They will be back on the field this time around.
Coetzee continues to walk the tightrope. Should the Boks lose it could mean his head.