Boucher wants Kallis back
BOUCHER: LOSING HIM IS A BITTER PILL TO SWALLOW
Proteas coach expects emphasis on reverse swing and pace on historically flat Pakistan pitches.
National cricket coach Mark Boucher confirmed yesterday that he has his sights set on getting Jacques Kallis back into the Proteas fold. Kallis has just started a controversial stint with England as their batting consultant in Sri Lanka.
But South Africa’s most prolific run-scorer was almost forced into the position by the negative reaction he, Boucher and director of cricket Graeme Smith received when he was appointed Proteas batting consultant in late 2019 and by a subsequent Cricket South Africa decision that white consultants were no longer allowed, which has now been put on ice.
“Losing Jacques to England is a bitter pill to swallow, he worked on an individual basis with players. But then we were getting messages that we could no longer use him, so it was a massive loss. Jacques was a very good cricketer, he can add a lot of knowledge, so why wouldn’t you want him in the set-up?
“But I picked up from the media that Judith February [interim board director] said we were allowed white consultants again and I would certainly like to get him back in some sort of role, maybe even against Australia, after the Pakistan tour. A lot of players have spoken highly of the knowledge he imparted in a short space of time.
“So Jacques is on my radar, but we need to treat it with care because he has a lot of other opportunities around the world. We must make sure we don’t mess him around.” Boucher said yesterday ahead of the Proteas’ departure today to Pakistan for the up-coming two-Test series.
Boucher said in the short-term he is looking forward to his batsmen capitalising in Pakistan on the confidence boost the series win over Sri Lanka has given them.
“Historically the pitches in Pakistan have been pretty flat and Mickey Arthur (the previous Pakistan coach) said they were pretty good for batting. But you score in different areas over there and a lot of technical adjustment needs to be done, especially against reverse-swing, which a lot of our guys haven’t seen before,” said Boucher.
Pace bowlers are likely to play a much bigger role than elsewhere on the sub-continent and Boucher said he was pleased to have a bowling coach like Charl Langeveldt, who has such a sound knowledge of reverse-swing.
“The pitches in Pakistan don’t turn a lot and they are more conducive to fast bowling. We expect them to go with pace and reverse-swing because it’s very flat. But you need to be able to get the ball to reverse first and in these times of Covid you have to be very careful with the ball.”