Exciting times as Gibson hits the right chords
New Proteas coach Ottis Gibson has been saying and doing all the right things in his first week in South Africa and it’s fair to say that excitement has also been building among national team players as they look forward to working with someone with a very good reputation at the highest echelons of the game.
That is not to say that any of them were happy to see Gibson’s predecessor, Russell Domingo, go, but it has also been noticeable that the Eastern Cape man has been much more relaxed and smiling this week as he begins his new appointments as the SA A/SA Invitation XI coach and Pretoria Mavericks mentor.
Gibson has been attending the Sunfoil Series matches at Centuri- on and the Wanderers, which is a great first impression to make because it shows the players that the new national coach is eager to be properly acquainted with all the top cricketers in the land.
He has also made it clear that he wants to get properly settled into his new job and the team environment before he considers major changes, which also extends to the issue of his assistants, which could become a politically-charged matter considering the merits of black African coaches like Geoff Toyana and Malibongwe Maketa. Cricket South Africa (CSA) have decided to retain Domingo’s assistants in their roles until the end of the series comprising two Tests, three ODIs and two T20 internationals before the end of October.
Ken Borland
“In terms of the support staff, cricket is not like football where a new coach automatically brings in his own people. We have a game in less than two weeks, so there’s not a lot of time. The existing assistant coaches know the players very well, so it made sense to keep them and give me time to assess.
“By the end of the Bangladesh series I will be able to say which people I want. I will also meet all the franchise head coaches and get a feel for the players’ characters and who I should be looking at. Someone like Geoff Toyana has provided four or five players for the national team and the same with Mark Boucher, so they will be invited to join us during our preparation,” Gibson said.
One can only wish CSA would show the same faith in the importance of the Sunfoil Series; having been rebuffed by the players in their efforts to shorten the competition and so not have everyone play everyone else home and away, they have now done away with the reserve umpire for the four-day games. One can only imagine what will happen if one of the standing umpires falls ill – as happens from time to time – because it means the match referee will have to be pressed into duty out on the field. But who will then be “in charge” of the game, with the match referee officially being the person who oversees the contest and has final authority over it.
CSA’s lack of interest in maintaining the integrity and importance of long-form cricket is also shown by their decision to turn the Boxing Day Test into a fourday game against Zimbabwe. These undermining actions cause the public to lose faith in what many consider to be cricket’s premier product.
I don’t believe throwing in a gimmick like making it a day/ night Test is going to get the crowds pouring into St George’s Park either. A team like Pakistan, who play their first game in New Zealand on January 3, would have been much more of a drawcard than Zimbabwe.