Herschelle Gibbs will add a fresh dynamic to the team environment that the Proteas desperately need, writes Alasdair Fraser.
Gibbs’ scathing remarks about the Proteas management not owning up about the recent World Cup has been well documented in the media.
The former Protea is justified in his remarks that management need to be held accountable for what has gone on in the past few months. Let’s not forget South Africa’s poor batting performance in the 2-0 Test series defeat to Sri Lanka.
The silence has been deafening, but this should be used as a positive opportunity to move forward and begin to integrate former top Proteas players into the coaching set-up.
Let’s be honest, the Proteas’ fielding at the World Cup was dismal. Did Justin Ontong really bring anything to the team in terms of a disciplined team effort in the field? The answer is a massive no. With due respect to Ontong, how much international experience did he bring? Or even coaching experience for that matter. Did the players really respect him?
If CSA can get Gibbs on board as a fielding consultant, we will see a positive turnaround in South African’s fielding department. The former Proteas opening batsmen is currently cutting his teeth as coach of the Rotterdam Rhinos for the inaugural Euro T20 and will bring a wealth of international experience that spans well over 12 years.
An exceptional fielder in his day, Gibbs strikes me as someone who’d still love to play international cricket. Sadly, father time has caught up with him and the next obvious step would be to get him involved in the Proteas set-up.
Whenever the Proteas train before a match, the session kicks off with a little bit of football. The players have a good run around and tend to joke around with management – right up Gibbs’ alley. He’d make fielding practice a ‘jol’. That’s the Herschelle Gibbs we all know.
Gibbs could even hang around for batting practice too. A naturally gifted batsman with an attacking instinct, Gibbs made his first-class debut as a 16-year-old and later went on to a stellar batting career for South Africa with his free-scoring approach – a talent honed when legendary West indies opener, Desmond Haynes, spent a season with Western Province in the early-1990s.
It had a profound effect on Gibbs’ batting approach as his natural attacking flair bloomed while Haynes dominated the domestic scene. Windies cricketers are always ‘cool’ and bring a certain calypso swagger to the gentlemen’s game not seen by other Test nations – this was plain to see in Gibbs’ early development.
It’s about time Gibbs passes on that baton to the next generation of Proteas. It’s high time we start seeing youngsters being blooded in the green and gold. It starts now.
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Australia brought in Gibbs’ contemporary, Ricky Ponting, into their set-up and it worked wonders for the damaged aura of the Baggy Greens. There are many young future Proteas who’d love to have Gibbs as their mentor – someone to laugh with, and at their themselves.
Think ‘438’ and you’ll see Gibbs swatting the Aussies with consummate ease. Remember what he did the night before? Sipping wine with a lady friend at the hotel bar late into the night.
That’s the legend of Herschelle Gibbs. Our cricketers have become far too serious and you could see it in the way they played at the World Cup. It was painful to watch and it’s time for a change.
Photo: Cricket South Africa/Twitter
