Tricky cricket power balance

The Proteas are set to go through another rocky patch ahead of their tour to England and the T20 World Cup later in the year after the appointment of Enoch Nkwe as Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) new Director of Cricket.

Current Proteas coach Mark Boucher and Nkwe have a strained relationship, after Nkwe resigned as his assistant coach last year, citing a toxic and contaminated working environment, amongst other problems.

It will be now be interesting to see if Boucher will be able to see out the remainder of his contract under the current power dynamic, which was changed a few times over the years.

Back in 2019 Nkwe was appointed interim Team Director of the Proteas after former coach Ottis Gibson was relieved of his duties following a disastrous 2019 World Cup campaign.

Following the appointment of Graeme Smith as CSA Director of Cricket in December 2019, he swiftly brought in Mark Boucher as Proteas head coach, with Nkwe then re-deployed as his assistant.

Nkwe then left his post in August last year, telling the CSA members council that he had been undermined and reduced to being a “cones boy” in a toxic working environment, while he was also unhappy with the team culture in the Proteas at the time.

In January, CSA tried to remove Boucher by charging him with “gross misconduct”, stemming from racism allegations at the Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings by Paul Adams.

However they also used much of what Nkwe had said when he resigned as additional ammunition against Boucher, with Nkwe then refusing to testify in CSA’s case, stating it was devolving into a “Nkwe vs Boucher” issue instead of a “CSA vs Boucher” one.

Following Adams’refusal to testify as well, CSA then withdrew all charges.

But one has to wonder now if CSA is using the appointment of Nkwe to force Boucher out of his own accord, or if the two will be able to smooth out their differences and work together.