New role for old hand
One of KwaZulu-Natal’s finest cricketing sons has returned home. Dale Benkenstein is the Dolphins’ new batting coach
SUCH was the impact that Mike Procter had on his chosen county, Gloucestershire, that it was often referred to as “Proctershire”. The same might well be true of Dale Benkenstein and Durham.
Benkenstein, 39, will play his 10th and final season for his adopted county next year before bringing down the curtain on a distinguished 22-year-old career that started at Kingsmead under the guidance of West Indian great Malcolm Marshall and will end at the Emirates, Durham, next year at the end of the English summer.
When Benkenstein left the Dolphins and joined Durham in 2005, many would have thought it would be hard for him to match his achievements at Kingsmead which included two first-class/limitedovers trophy doubles in 1996/7 (the first year in which he captained the team) and 2001/2 as well as a limitedovers trophy in 2000/1.
Remarkably, he managed the trick over three golden years, leading Durham to their first piece of silverware, the Friends Provident Trophy, in 2007, before he and his team surpassed themselves, lifting the County Championship for the first time in 2008. He then gave up the captaincy, but played a significant, “senior-pro” role in the team that retained the title the following year.
It was long assumed, following this period and afterwards, that Benkenstein would eventually swop his player’s clothes for a coach’s tracksuit at Durham, but this has not transpired.
This week, Benkenstein began work as a batting coach at Kingsmead under the wing of head coach Lance Klusener. He revealed that a combination of factors – including a family illness and a serious injury to his left shoulder – had contributed to his and his family’s decision to move back to South Africa, at least for the time being.
“As much as we were made to feel welcome in Durham – a wonderful home away from home – my wife (former SA hockey international Jacqui) and I have decided that South Africa is where we want to be at the moment,” he said.
“We have sacrificed a lot, particularly family time, being in Durham and it’s great that our three kids can now spend time with their grandparents in a beautiful place. We live in Mtunzini (on the Zululand coast), the kids are happy at school there, and I am appreciating all the family time and our old friends. At the end of the day, this is home for us.”
Benkenstein has a level three coaching certificate from his time at Durham, so he is fully qualified to pursue a career in coaching if he so wishes. At the moment, however, his part-time job with the Dolphins suits him perfectly. “I’ve always kept in touch with (KZN Cricket Union chief executive) Jesse Chellan since I left and I’m grateful that he’s always kept me in the loop about what’s been happening here. My shoulder injury, and a subsequent operation, has enabled me to have my first extended period of time in South Africa, so this job suits both of us very well.”
The plan is for Benkenstein to work with the Dolphins until he returns to Durham for his final season next year, and then again from October when he returns permanently to South Africa.
Benkenstein’s job is a new one, and he admits that it has yet to be fully defined.
“The basis of it is that I will help the batters, ranging from top players at school through to the academy, the provincial team and the Dolphins squad. I’ll probably begin with the senior batsmen for the rest of the pre-season; after that I’ll be freed up to do more development work with the youngsters.”
He acknowledged that “plenty of talking and planning” lay ahead as the coaching group would decide in greater detail what role he would play.
Asked to look back on the highlights of his career, Benkenstein said: “I don’t really remember too many individual things – more the fact that I’ve played with some fine teams and some amazing players.
“As a captain I’ve always tried to provide the glue to bind together players in a team. Looking back at the Natal years, we worked very hard, there were some great characters and we enjoyed our successes. The same has been true at Durham.
“When we old-timers look back, it’s not always about the cricket that we played, but the fun we had on and off the field.”
Looking at the international scene, Benkenstein said that his observation of South Africa’s recent limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka had shown him that the Proteas faced a number of challenges.
“The Test team is still a formidable one, but I saw that the loss of senior players in the limited-overs team has left a number of holes that need to be filled, particularly among the batsmen.”
He described English cricket as “incredibly strong”, saying that the gap between the county championship first division and Test cricket was “very small”.
“You have seen the Joe Roots of this world move quite comfortably into Test cricket, but he and players like him are still under pressure if they don’t average over 40 because there’ll always be another name to challenge them. In the first division there are no easy games, the intensity of the cricket is very high and I think that’s a real sign of the strength and depth of English cricket,” Benkenstein said.
One of the most important indicators of strength, Benkenstein said, was the number of experienced, top-class cricketers playing in the domestic game but not in international cricket.
“England is blessed by significant numbers of those players, while the same is not true any longer in Australia,” he said.
“Obviously it’s important to give youngsters opportunities, but the best way of doing that is in the company of senior players. When I started, I was fortunate to have players like Malcolm Marshall and Clive Rice taking the responsibility of winning games off my shoulders. But I also learnt from them in the heat of the moment out on the field, and you never forget those things.
“So the ideal blend for a successful team is to have a core of old hands with some exciting youngsters coming through. The important thing is that youngsters shouldn’t be forced to learn from each other but from within the structure of a team that includes some seasoned pros.”