After the worst World Cup campaign in South Africa’s history, we analyse the Proteas’ backroom staff. 

Over the last three weeks, our team has been discussing how the Proteas should move forward. We discussed potential young stars, possible local head coaches and potential overseas-based coaches. 

The consensus is that if Ottis Gibson’s contract is not renewed, we won’t only need a new coach but possibly a whole backroom-staff overhaul. 

But what is wrong with the current appointments, if anything? 

Malibongwe Maketa
The Proteas assistant coach was appointed after only one full season with the Warriors as head coach. It is difficult to determine how much say he has in the decision making. You would often see Maketa at the net sessions for throw downs and on the field for fielding drills, but it still remains unclear whether he has what it takes for the big time. Being an assistant coach for the Proteas means he is not ready for the main position quite yet, and despite being a level 4 coach may need a little more coaching experience before being considered for the Proteas head coach job, which should be the next step for him. Maybe a little more experienced head in the assistant role is needed.

Dale Benkenstein 
Coincidence or not, the Proteas’ batting quality has deteriorated under his watch. The Proteas’ focus on their bowling being their key weapon has diminished their belief in their batting. The blame must be somewhat shifted to Benkenstein for questionable batting strategies. We were meant to play an attacking brand of cricket but it ended up being reckless “positive cricket” which saw batsmen swing away aimlessly. Benkenstein made questionable comments about the Proteas’ inability to play against spin, suggesting there was no problem when India came for their inbound tour. The less said about their performance in Sri Lanka the better. There also seems to be less focus on individual batting strategies and rather more focus on a unified batting style. Benkenstein, with all his experience in England, should have been able to prepare the Proteas batsmen more adequately for the conditions. There is nothing wrong with the players in the squad and a batting coach’s role is to bring the best out of what you have. The problem was, that for two years, the Proteas batsmen batted below their potential consistently across all formats. 

Ottis Gibson 

Gibson being the bowling coach and head coach is one job too many. He should have elected a bowling coach that he could assist and guide rather than take the full responsibility of the specified role. The decisions made in the World Cup despite his experience in England were worrying, especially when the Proteas won the toss in the World Cup. Batting when the overhead conditions suits the opposition bowlers, bowling short to England and full to Bangladesh instead of the reverse, all of his star bowlers pulling up injured before the tournament, these are all signs of mismanagement. If Gibson renews his contract, he should appoint a bowling consultant at least, to give him more time to focus on the team strategy as a whole. 

Claude Henderson 

There hasn’t been much to say about Henderson and South Africa’s spin bowling. Keshav Maharaj has been performing as expected in Test cricket, and Imran Tahir has been world class as expected in ODIs. His knowledge of spin hasn’t boosted our batsmen’s ability to face spin and there hasn’t been a massive improvement in Tabraiz Shamsi’s spin bowling under his watch. Sometimes hard work behind the scenes is missed, and perhaps this is the case with Henderson. 

Justin Ontong 

South Africa’s fielding has never looked as bad as it has been in the last few years. I’m not blaming Ontong for this, he usually had safe hands in the field as a player, but there definitely hasn’t been the same intensity in the field as expected from a South African side. In this World Cup alone, there seemed to be a lot of dropped catches, missfields and missed run outs. The Proteas have always been a hardworking and a dangerous fielding side, which seems to have changed. 

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