White or not, McKenzie back on board at CSA

“It’s an exciting coaching group I’m going to be part of – looking after the under-19s all the way through to the Proteas.” – Neil McKenzie, CSA’s new batting guru

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

WILL the real CSA please stand up? Last week they gave South Africa’s government a commitment that they would appoint only black and brown consultants unless none were available. This week they appointed two whites in prominent positions.

Dillon du Preez was named as assistant coach of South Africa’s women’s team on Tuesday. On Thursday, Neil McKenzie was unveiled as the “high performance batting lead”. The devil, of course, is in the details: neither has signed on as a consultant. They are permanent staff.

But that will do little to placate those who have charged the cricket establishment with systemic racism going back decades. Not least Nathi Mthethwa, the minister of sport, who has complained that the upper echelons of the game are too white. Do CSA intend to get around the promise they made to him, at a meeting last Monday, about the colour of their consultants by simply not describing their appointees as consultants?      

In the super-heated atmosphere cricket has stumbled into, that Du Preez and McKenzie are solidly qualified for their new roles and, particularly in McKenzie’s case, have the track records to prove their competence matters less than the fact that they are neither black nor brown. And thus it also matters whether their jobs could have been given to those of similar stature and abilities who are black or brown. Geoff Toyana, for instance. Or Ashwell Prince.

Two blacks and four brown people were also appointed on Thursday. Eddie Khoza, whose excellence as an administrator has helped him rise above the febrile polarisation in the game, continues as CSA’s “acting head of cricket pathways”. Malibongwe Maketa returns from the exile he seemed to be cast into after last year’s disastrous World Cup, where he was Ottis Gibson’s assistant, as “South Africa A and national academy lead”. Shukri Conrad, a veteran of the coaching circuit, is the “South Africa under-19 men’s lead”. The respected and experienced Vincent Barnes, a former South Africa bowling and assistant coach, is the “high performance manager and bowling lead”. Dinesha Devnarain, who played 51 white-ball internationals, carries on as the South Africa under-19 women’s team and women’s national academy head coach. CSA’s chief medical officer will still be Shuaib Manjra, who doesn’t seem to have put a foot wrong.

But it’s McKenzie’s name that sticks out. He was named South Africa’s batting coach in February 2016 and replaced by Dale Benkenstein in October 2017, when Gibson succeeded Russell Domingo. It’s difficult to judge coaches, especially those who work in the technical disciplines. But it’s a fact that South Africa’s batters averaged 37.54, regardless of format, under McKenzie. Since he has left they have averaged 28.96.

South Africans’ most recent memory of him will be in a World Cup match at the Oval on June 2 last year, when he helped engineer Bangladesh’s victory over his compatriots. The 330/6 McKenzie’s charges scored was then their record ODI total and they topped 300 twice more during the tournament.

“I’ve come back a little more rounded as a coach,” McKenzie said in an audio file released by CSA on Thursday of his stint of more than two years in Bangladesh’s dugout. “It was a good experience but it’s really nice to be back with South Africa and trying to make a really good contribution.”

What were the parameters of his role? “It’s an exciting coaching group I’m going to be part of — looking after the under-19s all the way through to the Proteas,” McKenzie said. “I’ll be generally looking after the batting. It’s a young batting unit when you look across all the formats and spheres in the men’s and women’s [teams].”

In effect, then, McKenzie will serve as South Africa’s batting coach. Or consultant. Or “lead”, whatever that means. That would also seem to indicate there is no vacancy for a dedicated batting coach or consultant for the national team.

McKenzie was a good bet to return to South Africa’s dressingroom since he said on August 21 that he had resigned as Bangladesh’s batting coach. The current politics of cricket in South Africa threatened to throw a spanner in the works, but CSA have found a way to secure his services.

Graeme Smith, CSA’s director of cricket, will doubtless come under fire for what some will refuse to see as nothing other than another instance of him handing out jobs for pals: he played in 50 of McKenzie’s 124 matches for South Africa and captained him 38 times. Smith has faced the same claim over his appointment of Mark Boucher as head coach and Jacques Kallis, who served as the batting consultant last season. Smith played 258 international matches with Boucher and 261 with Kallis.

Perhaps Smith saw the accusation coming. In a video file of more than six minutes he extolled the virtues of Maketa, Conrad and Khoza, and even a position that has yet to be filled — that of convenor of selectors — but did not mention McKenzie.

“The convenor of selectors is a key person in CSA,” Smith said. “It’s a job that comes with a lot of pressure from all fronts. We went about advertising the job. Our HR department collects all the applications and we move from there into interview processes. With the cricket committee and the board members [involved] we decide on the best candidate going forward.

“The role definition is slightly changed. We’ve shifted it to not only being a national team convenor, but to controlling the whole pipeline, which speaks to our high performance strategy. We feel it’s important to create the avenues of communication — the way we play, select, think, operate, the type of people we want involved in that environment is key. We’ve aligned the convenor of selectors right through the pipeline. He’ll be overseeing everything. The convenor now is a much more extensive job.

“One thing I noticed when I got involved with CSA in December is that there were decent people involved but there wasn’t really that cross-communication. What was happening at under-19 level was separate to what was happening at the national academy, was separate to what was happening with the A team and then the national side. The thinking was not going right through the pipeline. The convenor of selectors working on the whole system and owning the whole system, and being part of all the processes, is key.

“That strategy is now in place, and we will sit down as a group and debate and work on our way forward, and try and align as closely to the national teams as we can in terms of culture, performance and what’s needed to hopefully push us to a level where our national teams are the best in the world. That they’re winning World Cups, that we’re bringing talent through, [that] we’re transforming at a level that is acceptable to everybody. Those are the goals with these appointments; that we can become really efficient and that cricket can push forward and create the strength that is required of us.”  

Listening to Smith, you could fool yourself that CSA is a functional organisation bound for great things. But then you remember why someone as highly regarded, deservedly, as Khoza is marooned in an acting capacity. His permanent position is senior cricket manager, which is being filled temporarily by David Mokopanele, in real life CSA’s mass participation manager. Khoza has been bumped up because Corrie van Zyl, previously the head of cricket pathways, has returned as an executive consultant in the wake of winning his case after being suspended in October, along with former chief operating officer Naasei Appiah and former sponsorship and sales head Clive Eksteen. Former chief executive Thabang Moroe was central to the drama. Appiah, Eksteen and Moroe have all since been fired. And all are taking legal action.

Can there be any surprise that many South Africans want to get as far way from cricket as they can? Even South Africans like Jonty Rhodes, who has been confirmed as Sweden’s new head coach. Yes, Sweden.

“The sad thing for me is that even though the top 30 players in the country want to work together for the game, the administration is in such chaos that unfortunately it does have an impact on things [on the field],” Rhodes was quoted as saying on Wednesday in a PTI report from Dubai, where he is Kings XI Punjab’s fielding coach for the IPL starting on September 19.

“Someone like me who is not part of the system, we are reading about issues in South African cricket week in and week out and they have not been resolved. The same mistakes are being made and there is not much accountability. It saddens me … it does impact on-field performance. Even though we have some great players, we have been lacking consistency in performance because of inconsistency off the field.” 

That’s the real CSA. Right there. It will have to work harder than ever to stand up.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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