Bring back SA stars, say duo

Both Corrie van Zyl, CSA’s general manager of cricket, and interim Proteas coach Enoch Nkwe said yesterday they fully support the idea of getting help from former international players, but their involvement needs to go further than just the national team.

Following South Africa’s dismal 3-0 thrashing in India, there has been much focus on not only the player-drain from the country, but also all the intellectual property of former Proteas teams that seems to be going to waste.

“We are absolutely open to ex-players helping out and we have approached some of them but they have not been available. But it’s not just about Proteas level, we also need guys helping out the SA A team, our high-performance programme and the U19s.

“A guy like Robin Peterson was involved there before now getting the Warriors job. So the door is open,” Van Zyl said.

“The permanent director of cricket post has been advertised and next Thursday that closes. I’m sure we’ll find that a lot of ex-players will apply and that will be good. It is difficult as interim appointments to act, but until such time as there are permanent appointments we will do what we need to do.

“We need to start planning for England, and we’ll do that as if we are permanent, if it changes, so be it,” Van Zyl said yesterday.

The former national head coach confirmed he would apply for the permanent position.

“We’ve had discussions with Vinnie Barnes (head of high performance) on how we can make our players better both technically and tactically,” Nkwe said.