“He would have had to make a decision whether he was going to walk away or stay, and he stayed. I'm really glad he did.” - Kagiso Rabada on Enoch Nkwe.
TELFORD VICE in Cape Town
KAGISO Rabada can come across as jaded, which is hardly surprising considering he is among the hardest working fast bowlers in world cricket. But he couldn’t contain his excitement on his first day in South Africa’s new-look dressingroom on Thursday.
“It’s amazing to have someone like Jacques Kallis in,” Rabada said in an audio interview released by Cricket South Africa (CSA). “He’s a great of the game. So is Mark Boucher. To hear their knowledge … it doesn’t even have to be skill-based, but mentally how you want to approach certain situations. So it’s great to have them around because they almost speed up your learning process.
“It’s also great to have Charl Langeveldt back. I really enjoy working with him. He’s in the same light as Mark and Jacques. They know what they’re talking about. They played at this level for a very long time.
“Everything is well-drilled and well-oiled. There’s no hesitation. They have a plan, they’re really decisive on what needs to happen. But at the same time it’s not very strict. There’s an expectation on every player to do the minimum of what is required, and the rest is up to you. You can liberate yourself.”
Tuesday was South Africa’s men’s team’s first day back at work after the Test series in India in October, when the visitors lost their shape, their game, their resolve, their basics and the series, 3-0. Enoch Nkwe was the interim team director with Lance Klusener the batting coach for the T20 series — he was not replaced for the Tests — and Vincent Barnes and Justin Ontong the bowling and fielding coaches. A few weeks on, only Ontong has kept his job. Boucher is now the head coach with Nkwe as his deputy. Kallis and Langeveldt head the batting and bowling departments. They will take South Africa into the four-match Test series against England, which starts in Centurion next Thursday.
Much of the blame for what happened in India has been laid at the door of Nkwe’s inexperience: he had neither played at the highest level nor been an international head coach before the India tour. But Rabada was relieved that Nkwe, who at 36 and with a level four coaching certificate in his kitbag has the potential to return to the top job, had not been lost to the team.
“Enoch is someone I’ve worked with since I was at age-group level, along with guys like ‘Quinny’ [Quinton de Kock] and Temba [Bavuma],” Rabada said. “The guys who’ve worked with him, they know his quality. He’s done really well at the Strikers and the Lions [domestic teams who won five titles across all formats under Nkwe’s guidance]. He’s no doubt a valuable person to have in the changeroom. He would have had to make a decision whether he was going to walk away or stay, and he stayed. I’m really glad that he did because I’ve got a relationship with him and so do the other players. Especially the young players who are in the T20 format; guys like Rassie [van der Dussen] and Dwaine [Pretorius]. They know him well and they know the value he can bring. I certainly know that, too. He’s made a decision to invest in the team and I’m really glad that he’s done so.”
South Africa’s series in India was their first in the World Test Championship (WTC), and the result means they are at the bottom of the standings. Thus they have the chance to redeem themselves against an England team no doubt still pondering their 1-0 series loss in New Zealand early this month. But Rabada wasn’t about to take his eye off the ball for the sake of what remains little more than a marketing ploy.
“The [WTC] can put unnecessary pressure on us right now,” he said. “We shouldn’t really be looking at that. Yes, we don’t have any points and it does look bad. But if we can focus on what we want to do that should look after itself. We hadn’t been thinking about it, but when you mention it and you think about where we are on that table, it can get you into the mindset where you need to catch up. But at the moment we need to focus on the product and the by-product will look after itself.”
England’s ongoing navel-gazing can only help the South Africans, but they know they need to reassure their home crowds that they have turned a corner after India — and to translate the changes that have swept through the game off the field into positive performances where it matters most: in the middle.
“We’re going through a transition phase, and we need to see if we can step up,” Rabada said. “We do believe that we can. We spoke about where we want to go and where we’re at right now, and I think everyone is on the same page, which makes things a lot clearer.”
Winning the series would go a long way to making things clearer still. South Africa have not beaten England at home since 1999-00, when Boucher was in the team and CSA's acting director of cricket, Graeme Smith, then just 19, had yet to make his debut.
First published by Cricbuzz.
Comments
No comments yet. Start the conversation.