Creating a conducive environment for players to perform is of utmost importance for the interim coach, Malibongwe Maketa, as the Proteas prep for a big Test series Down Under. 

Leadership across all disciplines is about taking care not enforcing the leader’s ways onto the environment. It becomes more paramount in sports in this day and age where players do a lot more to understand themselves and to determine how they want to play.

The Test squad on tour in Australia might lack experience but it goes without saying that each individual is at a point in their career where they have done the necessary work to carve out a path to success for themselves and the team. 

Captain Dean Elgar and his vice-captain Temba Bavuma are the most experienced in the batters group while the rest of the batters haven’t played a single Test in Australian conditions. Despite all that, the rest of the batters have the skills and talents required for them to not only take punches but to give them back as well. 

In such an environment, believing in players and providing support becomes crucial and Maketa aims to do just that in his interim head coach role. 

“Once the game starts I hand over. The biggest thing then is how do we support the players as the coaching staff and consistently ask ourselves questions on how we can turn the game around or how we can stay ahead in the game and giving that information to the players and to Dean,” Maketa told the media on Tuesday.

It has been identified that the Proteas have fallen short in the Test arena mainly because of the batting challenges that were revealed by England in September. None of the batters on that tour were successful and that includes Elgar with all the experience he has earned since making his debut in Australia in 2012. 

On the other hand, Bavuma was ruled out of the England series and as if that was not stressful enough, a storm of critics and abuse followed in white-ball cricket where Bavuma is the captain. The World Cup fallout is definitely another factor that the players will have in the back of their minds and this goes for everyone including the star in Kagiso Rabada who was not particularly at his best during that tournament. 

South Africa’s key players are battle-hardened warriors but they are still human and need to be shown some love, especially at this time. 

“As a coaching staff I always encourage us not to get in the way of players, to just trust the work we have done and make sure the environment is conducive for them to perform,” said Mekata.

“I would say I’m more relaxed in terms of when the game starts, I know I’ll be comfortable that we’ve done all the work and we’ve done everything that’s required of us to go out there and perform and everything else then is up to the players,” he added.