- Cricket South Africa’s director of cricket Enoch Nkwe has said newly appointed Proteas white ball coach Rob Walter would not be tried at the 2023 World Cup.
- The Proteas are already in a dangerous position to qualify for the tournament based on their ranking in the ICC World Cup Super League register.
- CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki said they needed two national coaches due to the split volume of cricket for both formats.
Cricket South Africa’s director of cricket Enoch Nkwe has said that Proteas’ newly appointed white ball coach Rob Walter will not be strictly judged at the 2023 World Cup to be hosted by India later this year.
The Proteas still need to qualify for that tournament and have five games to go when they play England in three ODIs later this month, along with two against the Netherlands in March and April.
If they fail the automatic qualification hurdle, they still have to navigate the World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe to reach India for later in the year.
It’s already a tall order for Walter, who will be leaving Central Stags to join Proteas starting next month.
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Nkwe said it would be unfair if they made Walter sleep in a bed he didn’t make, though they still hold out hope of automatically qualifying for India later this year.
“We’re not going to strictly judge him at the 2023 World Cup,” Nkwe said.
“We understand that what happened before he arrived was difficult for us. I know Rob wants to do well.”
“He wants every opportunity as a white ball team to do well and win the World Cup. The energies will be invested in qualifying for the World Cup.”
“That’s the first approach, but also to do it without losing focus on the big picture. It will be a good balance, but the goal is to qualify for the World Cup, but also to deal with small goals in small stages.
“It’s almost as if we have two plans in mind as we look ahead to the 2027 World Cup, with one looking to the next eight months.
“Then there is the medium to long term plan where we understand that we will lose some big name players.
“The focus will be on this year’s World Cup and qualifying for it, but it won’t be judged solely on this year’s World Cup.”
CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki said the split of the coaching job that Mark Boucher vacated at the end of last year’s T20 World Cup in Australia was something that was always in his plans.
Moseki said the decision was also based on the high volume of International Cricket Council events over the next eight years that demanded a division of labour.
Shukri Conrad has been hired as Test Match’s coach, who will also work with the high performance structures during Test Match’s inactive periods.
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“The DoC appointment meant that he came with his strategies, and one of the things he sold us on was the division of coaching labor,” Moseki said.
“It has been successful for other countries, and this cycle going forward, there is an ICC event every year for the next eight years.
“The white-ball coach will be busy focusing on those events, but red-ball cricket is key, and he’ll be busy.
“The red ball coach will also contribute to the high performance structure.”
