SA team will have Amla’s back

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Pretoria

Hashim Amla need not look over his shoulder to know whether his players have his back when he takes charge of SA’s test team in Sri Lanka next month.

The almost 10 years Amla has spent at or near the top as a test batsman and his discipline and humility have already won him support as he seeks to fill the chasm Graeme Smith’s retirement in March would have left.

“We want to play well for Hashim to make his job a little bit easier,” Morne Morkel said yesterday.

Not that Morkel thought Amla would need a lot of help: “A leader doesn’t have to talk. If a leader scores runs and does well, that’s when people will follow him.

“Hashim ticks all those boxes. He bats in tough conditions and scores runs. When guys are bowling fast, he fronts up. Those are the signs of a quality leader.

“It’s not all about words. It’s also about fronting up, and that’s what he does so well.”

Besides, Morkel said, leadership in the SA team was not the job of one player.

“Hashim has been leading in the back room while Graeme has been captain. Guys like him and AB (de Villiers) talk a lot in the dressingroom and in team chats. But Hashim is wearing the captain’s armband now, and whoever walks onto the field will back him.”

Morkel did not foresee significant changes in the team’s culture under Amla’s leadership: “His personality might be a bit different to Graeme’s, but we’re all used to Hashim.”

JP Duminy said Amla could build his captaincy on the strong, healthy foundations in the SA team.

“Small things will change, but we understand what we are trying to stand for so I don’t think there will be many changes,” Duminy said. “What’s been healthy over the last couple of years is that guys who have stepped into the national team are free to express themselves. That’s a real strong point for us.”

For SA team manager Mohammed Moosajee, the continuity SA will need to segue seamlessly from the Smith to the Amla era was firmly in place.

“It is a challenge when you lose the intellectual property of guys like (Mark) Boucher, (Jacques) Kallis and Smith within 18 months,” Moosajee said.

“To replace that experience is not going to be easy. But there is a great tier of second generation leadership of which three are our captains - Faf (du Plessis, the T20 captain), AB (the one-day skipper) and Hashim - and you can put JP, Morne Morkel, Alviro (Petersen) and even Dale (Steyn) in there. They’ve been able to spread the leadership role well.”

Moosajee said what you saw in Amla was not necessarily what you would get.

“There’s a perception that Hashim is a reluctant leader but he’s always been very methodical in his preparation. He doesn’t leave much to chance, he’s very principled, and he’s been the leader in the environment without having the title.”