Maketa moves quickly to make men out of U19 boys

Malibongwe Maketa wants to “shock” the South African U19 team on the dusty, slow pitches in Bangladesh, in part, to accelerate their preparation for next year’s U19 World Cup.

The truncated nature of the junior team’s preparation, the result of extended time buried in schoolbooks, means the players are at a significant disadvantage compared to their rivals at ICC events.

“You play Bangladesh or India or Pakistan and they will have four or five players who’ve already had a taste of first-class cricket,” Maketa, who took over as head coach from Shukri Conrad in March, said.

Conrad, his predecessor Lawrence Mahatlane and now Maketa have all faced the same dilemma.

SA’s junior players, primarily because of their academic requirements, aren’t playing nearly as regularly as their rivals, necessitating the holding of camps and in the case of July’s tour to Bangladesh, exposure to conditions with which they are unfamiliar.

“I see that tour as the start of the journey for us.

“I really want to shock them in Bangladesh, expose them in those conditions and give them a wake-up call.

“All of them have only played schoolboy cricket and hopefully we, as coaches and selectors, will learn a lot as we try to [choose] the group for the World Cup.”

That tournament will take place in Sri Lanka next year, leaving Maketa with little time for preparation with school exams later this year, another hindrance.

“We have to accelerate their preparation and growth in this way.

“Unlike in my playing days, when we had three-day fixtures at U19 level or even played club cricket, these boys have none of that.

“They’ve not been exposed to hard cricket like the teams we will face [at the World Cup].

“Fortunately, we have a lot of talent in the group, which is important.”

Of the 18 players heading to Bangladesh, only Liam Alder and 17-year-old left-arm fast bowler Kwena Maphaka remain from the 2022 World Cup in the West Indies.

With his time with the team already limited, Maketa, battling flu, chose extreme circumspection and avoided Wednesday’s training session.

“I don’t want to pass anything on to the boys.”

Further down the line, Maketa, who also runs Cricket SA’s National Academy camps, has drawn up schedules for the players, built around their academic demands, that he hopes will speed up their preparation for the World Cup.

“It’s really about ensuring that for the bowlers their techniques are such that they can produce consistently and the batters have good enough game plans for different situations, especially against spin bowling, which we will face a lot of at the World Cup.

“If we have those things right, we can focus on winning.”

The 42-year-old now has a permanent post after years as an assistant with the senior Proteas team or as SA A coach and, more recently, stand-in head coach for the Proteas on their tour to Australia.

“I applied for the main job [Proteas head coach] but I didn’t get it and that’s fine.

“I wouldn’t say having a permanent post is a relief, but I am looking forward to the challenge of helping these young men at the start of their journey to hopefully become professional cricketers.”

The U19s will tour Bangladesh from July 3 to 18. —