Looking at the South Africa national teams across all formats stirs up confusion and concern for me as a South African cricket fan, writes Khalid Mohidin.
Firstly, I would like to say I have no right or the coaching expertise to say whether Boucher’s choices are correct or not, but I would like to explore a different approach he could take.
South Africa finds itself in a confusing stage, especially with a T20 World Cup around the corner, a 2023 50-over World Cup tournament to plan for and a rebuild in motion at Test level. There is no continuity across the formats, and we have ourselves to blame.
It hasn’t been the greatest start to Mark Boucher’s tenure as Proteas coach. He has been SA’s coach for 3 Test Series (2 lost and 1 won) 3 ODI Series (1 drawn, 1 won, 1 lost) and 5 T20 Series (all lost).
Out of 11 series played across all the formats, the Proteas have only won 2 and drawn 1. The rest have been defeats.
In 3 Test series, they lost 3-1 to England, beat Sri Lanka 2-0 and lost to Pakistan 2-0.
In 3 ODI series played, they drew 1-1 to England, beat Australia 3-0 and lost to Pakistan 2-1.
In 5 T20 series played, they lost 2-1 to England, 2-1 to Australia, 3-0 to England, before losing 2-1 and 3-1 both to Pakistan.
His overall record reflects 3 Test wins out of 8 matches played, 5 ODI wins out of 9 and 4 T20I wins out of a total 16.
This works out to 33 matches played across all the formats, with only 12 of those matches having been won – a worrying win percentage of 36.36.
Despite this record, there still remains a pocket of fans who believe that Boucher is still the right man for the job. I acknowledge that things have been tough so far during his tenure, particularly because each format has a different goal and needs a different plan and focus.
Let’s look at the Test team for example. When Boucher took over, the Proteas just came off a heavy defeat in India. It was clear that the Test side was far from the standard it needed to be, particularly after losing some big names like AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Hashim Amla and JP Duminy.
At that point, the Proteas should have turned their focus to the next generation of talent, with an emphasis on rebuilding for the next Test championship.
In the ODI arena, they had 3 years to plan and build a team for the 2023 World Cup and beyond. In the T20Is, there was a little more pressure for instant success, with a T20 World Cup around the corner.
The focus, however, particularly in Tests, was on winning immediately which was seen in the new caps given under Boucher’s reign. They opted for domestic experience in ‘age’ rather than youth who have experience, giving Rassie van der Dussen, Pieter Malan and Beuran Hendricks Test debuts during this period. Lutho Sipamla was the only young debutant under Boucher.
Both Pieter Malan (who came in for an injured Markram) and Rassie van der Dussen did not light up the stage with centuries like you’d expect experienced campaigners to do. While the former did hit an impressive half-century against England, Rassie has been a consistent scorer for the Proteas under Boucher, also coming close to a century in Test cricket but not getting over the line. Pieter has since been replaced by Aiden Markram.
With senior players getting opportunities, you’d expect them to hit the ground running immediately because when you are 30–plus, you should be more assured of your game and there isn’t much room for improvement other than improving results. If half-centuries and below are all you are getting, then surely a younger player with room to grow will benefit more from the experience?
For example, 30s and 50s for a 22-year-old at international level are far more valuable to the growth of their game.
If Boucher’s focus from the start was to rebuild and reward youth who have been excellent in the domestic setup over the last two to three seasons, then I feel fans would be less harsh when it comes to the results. Who knows, one of those youngsters could surprise us all and take to international cricket like a duck to water.
This reiterates my plea for players like Kyle Verreynne and Marco Jansen (who are currently in the Test squad) to be given an opportunity, particularly in the Test arena, because the more experience they get now, the more beneficial it will be for South Africa going forward. Senior players in the current setup should also take more responsibility and perhaps move up the order into positions that they play for their domestic teams.
Protecting our young debutants by giving them the best chance to succeed, by shifting our senior players up and batting the young, newer payers in the 5 or 6 positions, can only help the Proteas. With young bowlers, they need to try to avoid giving them the new ball. This is something I feel that we failed to do with the likes of Zubayr Hamza against England and Lutho Sipamla against Sri Lanka.
Let’s try to put the past behind us. We can start building a team that can be dominant in Test cricket for the next two Test Championships, starting with the West Indies this month.
