Peterson appointment brightens dark day

With many products of South African cricket taking their first ticket outta here, it will ease minds that Peterson has chosen to stay.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THE best news South African cricket has had since Faf du Plessis lost the toss in Visakhapatnam three weeks ago broke in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday.

Robin Peterson, a son of that storied soil, has been named interim coach of the Warriors’ men’s team.

And as Eric Simons’ assistant with the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants in the Mzansi Super League. 

That should help take the edge off the awful truth cricketminded South Africans woke up to on Tuesday: the innings defeat Du Plessis’ team suffered against India in the third men’s Test in Ranchi sealed the worst performance by South Africa since readmission.

It’s not that they lost the series 3-0, it’s that they went down by in innings in consecutive matches for the first time since 1936.

Former South Africa left-arm spinner Peterson, 40, is as Eastern Cape at it gets, having been born in Port Elizabeth, attended Alexander Road High, and played for Eastern Province and the Warriors.

What with many products of the game in this country taking their first ticket outta here — Peterson fills the vacancy left by Rivash Gobind, who is off the Afghanistan as Lance Klusener’s assistant — it will ease minds that Peterson has chosen to stay.

“It’s especially a privilege being a PE boy and having spent the best part of my career playing for the Warriors and now getting the opportunity to help develop and guide the team,” a Warriors release quoted Peterson as saying. 

“This is a huge thrill. They have the right mix of youth, experience and talent to do something special as a collective and push for silverware.”

That last happened in 2017-18, when the Eastern Capers shared the One-Day Cup with the Dolphins.

Peterson, 40, who played 14 Tests and 77 one-day internationals, would seem ably equipped to add to the trophy cabinet.

He has been a technical consultant with South Africa’s under-19 men’s team in 2017, and has worked with the national academy and South Africa A.

Peterson has coached the Barbados Tridents and the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the Caribbean Premier League for the past two years, as well as the Northern Warriors in the inaugural T10 League in the United Arab Emirates last year.

He has been an assistant coach with the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.

“All this experience within the field of coaching at the professional level makes Peterson a highly suitable selection to lead the Warriors during this new season,” the release quoted Cricket Eastern Cape chief executive Mark Williams as saying.

Peterson will be back in a Warriors tracksuit on Monday for a four-day match against the Cobras at Newlands.

So far this season the Warriors have lost to the Knights and beaten the Lions.

First published by TMG Digital.

CPL isn’t helping Amla find form

TMG Digital

TELFORD VICE in London

WHAT does it tell someone who once batted for more than 13 hours against one of the best attacks in the game that he can’t stay at the crease for not quite 35 balls in any of six innings facing some of the most ordinary bowling he would have seen in his almost 19 years as a senior player?

That he is in a slump?

That he is past it?

That we can’t compare the seriousness of batting in a Test with the silliness of taking guard in a slew of T20s?

Whatever: welcome to Hashim Amla’s current reality.

Those 13 hours comprise the innings of his life — the undefeated 311 he made at The Oval in July 2012, still the only triple century scored for South Africa.

And a far cry from the 72 runs Amla has scraped and scratched together for the Barbados Tridents in this year’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

If there’s anything we can glean from all that it’s that playing in the CPL isn’t helping Amla emerge from the doldrums of not having scored a century in his last 34 innings for South Africa, whatever the format.

His best effort for the Tridents by Tuesday was the 34-ball 35 he made against the St Lucia Stars in Bridgetown on September 2.

Amla’s only other forays into double figures have been in innings of 14 and 15.

In the process he has been dismissed by people called Roshon Primus and Qais Ahmad.

Whoever they are, they aren’t a patch on James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann, the heart of England’s attack at The Oval six years ago.

Along with things, players change. Amla’s greatness hasn’t been in question for a long time, and it isn’t now.

But, perhaps because of the heights he has reached, it is starkly obvious that he isn’t the player he used to be.

Just as true is that South Africa need him, even as a diminishing presence.

Think of their chances at next year’s World Cup with Amla still in the side.

And then think how the team would fare without him.

The difference between those two thoughts tells us plenty.