Mominul Haque – Bulletproof Truth

What happens when coaches are absent?

“Everyone shares knowledge among each other.” – Sarel Erwee on how South Africa are coping without their bowling coach.

Telford Vice | St George’s Park

WHAT difference does a coach make at elite level? It’s one of sport’s more unanswerable questions, and more so in cricket — where at least as many decisions are made on the field as in the dressing room. Given how prominent statistical analysis is becoming in the game, we may yet be able to measure that part of this piece of string.

For now, all we have are theory and supposition. So the segue on the subject offered by the curious circumstances of the St George’s Park Test is intriguing: what happens to teams when coaches are absent? Russell Domingo, Bangladesh’s head coach, isn’t at the ground. Neither is Charl Langeveldt, South Africa’s bowling coach.

Domingo, a Gqeberha native who still lives in the city when he isn’t in a Tigers tracksuit, travelled here from Durban the day before the squad to visit family and friends. And a good thing, too: he tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, and might well have taken a few players or other members of the support staff down that path with him had they been sat next to them on a plane on a flight of 90 minutes.

Confirmation that Langeveldt had contracted the same disease, along with Zunaid Wadee, South Africa’s security officer, was also had on Friday. Their symptoms were not serious, and they chose to drive together from Durban to their homes in Paarl and Cape Town. They were involved in a crash near their destinations, but were not badly injured.

Domingo, Langeveldt and Wadee are resting and recuperating at their respective homes, and expected to make full recoveries. Their experience triggered the more relaxed coronavirus protocols agreed between CSA and the BCB before the series, but no rules appear to have been broken. Less certain is whether the teams have been affected by the absence of their coaches.

Mominul Haque ignored Domingo’s advice to bat first at Kingsmead, a decision that doubtless led to Bangladesh’s dismissal for 53 in the fourth innings. This time, the choice was taken out of Mominul’s hands because Dean Elgar won the toss. But it would have been Mominul who decided to station himself at the unusual position of short mid-on on Sunday, when he took the catches that did for Sarel Erwee and Ryan Rickelton in South Africa’s second innings.

Langeveldt often has a noticeable positive effect on the bowlers he coaches, usually in a skill sense. When he comes on board, his charges are soon equipped with new deliveries and subtle variations to their existing repertoires. South Africa’s attack are unlikely to lose what Langeveldt has given them in the space of one Test, but his keen eye for detail wouldn’t have gone amiss.

How have South Africa made do without him? “We’ve got experienced guys in our team, experienced coaches as well,” Sarel Erwee told a press conference. “So everyone shares knowledge among each other, especially the bowling unit. Yes, we’re missing our bowling coach and we wish him well. But we’ve got other guys helping out and it’s going well so far.”

In contrast to Langeveldt, Allan Donald, his Bangladesh counterpart, tends to emphasise aggression, an argument that isn’t difficult to make on the evidence of the attitude the visitors’ fast bowlers have brought to this series.

Not that it’s helped the visitors much. Maybe coaches matter more when teams are well-matched, when the smallest advantage could be what wins games. That isn’t the case this time, with South Africa steaming towards a 2-0 series win.

Going into the fourth day, Bangladesh need 386 more runs to reach their target of 413, which would be the highest successful chase in a Test in South Africa and the third-highest in history. The most runs yet reeled in to win at St George’s Park is the 271/8 Australia made in March 1997. South Africa’s 215/5 against New Zealand in February 1954 is the only other instance of a target of 200 or more being overhauled in Gqeberha.

South Africa reached this happy place by piling up 453 — only their second effort of 450 or more in their last 19 Tests — and then keeping the pressure on to dismiss Bangladesh 236 runs behind. The follow-on was not enforced, and South Africa batted into the second hour after tea before declaring. Then, with Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer sharing the new ball, as was the case at Kingsmead, they sent the visitors spiralling to 27/3 in the 9.1 overs they faced before stumps.

Ripping turn from both ends to tentative batters under the glowing floodlights as the sunset draped itself over the sky to the west made for a dramatic spectacle. How did openers feel about that scenario? “We experienced it last week in Durban, and it makes your heart flutter,” Erwee said. “It’s not a nice period. We’ve got two world-class spinners, and it makes it even worse if you’re got to go face them.”

Erwee’s burgeoning partnership with Elgar is having a significant impact on South Africa’s performances. They have opened the batting only eight times, but already they have mounted two century stands and two more of more than 50. Six of the side’s other first-wicket pairs never scored as many as the 397 runs Elgar and Erwee have made together despite having as many or more opportunities to do so.

“We share a good relationship off the field, so you get to know each other and what makes each other tick,” Erwee said about Elgar. “Taking that off-field relationship onto the field makes you understand your partner better.”

Good coaches know better than to get in the way of the development of that kind of healthy bond. Maybe that’s the key to their role at this level: understanding when to get out of the way.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Elgar to Bangladesh: ‘harden up’

“I didn’t see any bad sledging out there, even from their side. This is Test cricket, and we need to dry our eyes sometimes.” – Dean Elgar

Telford Vice | Gqeberha

DEAN Elgar has denied and dismissed Bangladesh’s allegations of untoward sledging during the Kingsmead Test, and told the visitors to “harden up”. His comments are sure to inflame tensions ahead of the second match of the series, which starts at St George’s Park on Friday.

Asked at a press conference on Thursday what he made of Bangladesh’s claims, Elgar said: “I don’t think they’re justified whatsoever. We play the game hard, and if anything we were just giving back what we were getting when we were batting.

“By no means did we swear or use foul language towards the Bangladeshi cricketers, because we respect them. I think they need to harden up and play the game at a level that maybe they’re not used to.

“One of my messages to the players is that we do everything with dignity, and we don’t throw our badge or our name away. I didn’t see any bad sledging out there, even from their side. This is Test cricket, and we need to dry our eyes sometimes.”

The Bangladeshis have said that the South Africans targetted 21-year-old Mahmudul Joy Hasan, who was playing just his third Test, for abuse. Elgar refuted the assertion: “We wouldn’t go out there and intentionally try and intimidate a young player. We’ll play the game at a hard level, but we’re not there to use language to try to intimidate guys. We’d rather try and intimidate by our skill.

“But, also, this is Test cricket. When I started playing it [against Australia at the WACA in December 2012], the environments were a lot harsher. You were told everything that you didn’t want to know about yourself.”

Asked at a later press conference on Thursday about Elgar’s view, Mominul Haque said: “In cricket, sledging happens and you have to absorb it. I never complain about it.” That differs from what Mominul said immediately after the Durban Test: “Sledging is quite normal, but the umpires didn’t seem to notice it.”

Indeed, Bangladesh seem to have a bigger issue than their claims of sledging with the performance of Marais Erasmus and Adrian Holdstock, who had eight of their decisions overturned on review — four of which went in South Africa’s favour and four in the visitors’.

“I don’t think the pitch helped, especially with the variable bounce, which can challenge the umpires,” Elgar said. “I feel for them because they’re good umpires. Marais is the umpire of the year [for 2021, 2017 and 2016]. Adrian [who stood in his fifth Test] is just starting off in the Test arena, and he’s definitely not a bad umpire. They are human beings — they do make errors, as do the players. But I’m pretty sure they’re going to learn a hell of a lot out of that. Hopefully in the second Test we can have a better show.”

The visitors failed to refer two other unsuccessful appeals, all of which DRS revealed would have earned wickets had they been sent upstairs. “Whatever the umpire decides, we need to respect that,” Elgar said. “Technology is there for a reason. If you don’t use the technology, then you’re holding yourself accountable for [the umpires’] decisions.”

One of the sources of Bangladesh’s ire will be moved sideways at St George’s Park, where Allahudien Palekar will replace Holdstock, who will move to the television official’s booth in accordance with appointments made before the series. But Bangladesh won’t be able to escape the home side’s intensity and competitiveness.

“We’re representing our country and we want to win, and if you’re playing a little bit of a mind game on the opposition, why not,” Elgar said, and hinted that the Bangladeshis’ overly dramatic response to events on the field made them party to their own downfall: “Maybe they got caught up in the moment, which played perfectly into our hands. That’s what comes with gamesmanship. You’ve got to outsmart and outplay and outwit your opposition. That’s the total emotional and mental side of Test cricket that people forget about sometimes. If you incorporate your skill and tick the boxes to the best of your ability, that’s what sums up Test cricket.”

Elgar’s skin would seem significantly more difficult to get under than that of South Africa’s opponents in this rubber. But even one of the toughest cricketers in the game was no match for a slip in the shower in Durban on Monday night.

“I’ve got a few stitches in my forehead,” Elgar said about a visible gash above his right eye. “It wasn’t my proudest moment, but these kind of accidents happen. I batted today [Thursday], which was a concern because of where my helmet rests. But I seem to be OK.”

That’s bad news for Bangladesh’s hopes of recovering from being bowled out for 53 — their lowest total in this country — in the second innings at Kingsmead to seal South Africa’s 220-run victory. Because if they thought Elgar and his team came hard at them in Durban, they ain’t seen anything yet.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Kingsmead comes in from the cold, and prompts Bangladesh’s bizarre blame game

“If you have someone who knows the ground like the back of their hand you need to understand that he knows what he’s talking about.” – Ryan Rickelton implores Bangladesh to trust Russell Domingo.

Telford Vice | Gqeberha

WHAT had gone so wrong, Graeme Smith was asked. “It’s just …” He paused to try to think of a less direct way of saying what he was about to say, decided to stay true to his damn straight self instead, and completed his sentence: “… Durban.”

It was December 29, 2011 and Smith was trying to explain to a press conference how and why his team had lost a Test to Sri Lanka at home. The result jolted South African cricket. Being beaten in their backyard by an Asian team was rare but grudgingly accepted if that team were Pakistan or India. Sri Lanka? Don’t joke. Even so, Rangana Herath, who took nine wickets to seal the Lankans’ first win in nine Tests in the country, saw the funny side: “That’s why we are laughing at you.”

That loss followed defeats at Kingsmead by Australia, England and India. South Africa beat India there in December 2013, but then went down to England, drew a rain-ruined match with New Zealand, and were beaten by Australia and Sri Lanka. In the same period, they lost only five of the 41 home Tests they played at other grounds. Even St George’s Park, where surfaces are also slow, had come to the party: played six, won five, drew one.

Maybe it really was just Durban. South Africa’s players had long since decamped from the beachfront hotel where they had usually stayed — less than 2km from Kingsmead — to another 29km away in Umhlanga, a sanitised seaside suburb to the north. Perhaps they were scared away by the rude realities of Durban’s gritty urban environment, which would only have been exacerbated by playing at the country’s only inner-city Test venue.

So South Africans will hope that their team’s emphatic victory over Bangladesh at Kingsmead on Monday will serve to reclaim the ground from foreigners who have felt too welcome there for too long. And open a new avenue of thinking about how to win there. South Africa’s only other success in their last 10 Durban Tests was built on the standard procedure for getting the job done in this country: Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel claimed 15 of India’s 20 wickets in December 2013.

This time, Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj took 14. Only once has spin grabbed more wickets for South Africa in their 245 home Tests, and that was more than 112 years ago — Bert Vogler and Aubrey Faulkner snapped up all 20 against England at the Old Wanderers in January 1910.

Much has changed about South African cricket since their Test attack comprised Vogler, Faulkner, Reggie Schwarz and Gordon White; wrist spinners all. Kingsmead has changed, too, particularly in recent years. And for the better. The pitch for the Bangladesh match offered assistance for seamers and spinners alike, and batting on it was challenging but far from unfair. The surface was relaid two-and-half years ago. That play started on time on Sunday after Saturday night’s deluge of 50mm — two-thirds of what falls on average in Durban in the whole of April — was a minor miracle, and no small tribute to the efforts of the groundstaff and the world-class drainage system, which was overhauled four years ago.

Kingsmead has come in from the cold in several senses, including financially, under the direction of a young and innovative chief executive, Heinrich Strydom, who has been on board since August 2017. And thanks to the dedication of his hardworking staff, who buzz with an enthusiasm not often seen among CSA’s also industrious but demoralised managers and executives.

A symbol of that difference was the stuck sightscreen that held up the start of the series for 33 minutes, which was one of the few aspects of what might otherwise have been a flawless occasion. The buck for that problem stopped with CSA and one of their service providers, not with Kingsmead.

Some 900km down South Africa’s east coast in Gqeberha, staff at St George’s Park would have been watching with interest. The second Test starts there on Friday, and in some ways the ground is what Kingsmead was until not long ago: emblematic of a fragile economy worsened by the pandemic and the chronic and intensifying flaws in South African society. It’s also a ground where South Africa have lately struggled to perform — they lost here to Sri Lanka in February 2019 and to England in January 2020.

Dean Elgar played in both those matches, and in South Africa’s last five at Kingsmead. He has one win to show for all that. Small wonder that, even in the afterglow of Monday’s thumping victory, he said: “We still want to play the Highveld kind of cricket, where you’re playing three seamers and a world-class spinner, where fast bowling is our prime source of attack.” He will have to hold that thought until next season, what with St George’s Park and Kingsmead cut similar conditions cloth. But the two grounds are also different.

“Get ready for a fucking brass band in your ears for five days,” one of the television camera operators working on the series said to another at Durban’s airport on Tuesday as they waited to board a flight to Gqeberha, a reference to the providers of St George’s Park’s perennial soundtrack — which is beloved by some and detested by others.

“We know the wind howls here, which makes it difficult in all areas; those are the challenges you have to deal with,” Ryan Rickelton said in media material CSA released on Wednesday. The wind is an important element of the conditions. The easterly comes off the Indian Ocean just more than 3km away, and brings with it moisture that makes seam bowling more threatening. The westerly blows in from the hinterland, which has been stricken by drought since 2015, and dries the surface — making it better for batting. On Wednesday, a blustery westerly pumped at between 50km and 74km an hour. If you’re at the ground, the “bowling wind” comes over the main scoreboard. The “batting wind” flies from beyond the grandstand to the west.

But the Bangladeshis won’t have to do all this homework. Russell Domingo was born and raised in the city, and no-one knows St George’s Park better than the former Warriors coach. But that can only help the visitors’ players if they take Domingo’s advice. On the evidence of what happened at the toss in Durban, that seems unlikely.

“I was very surprised that they bowled first, because at Kingsmead you generally bat first,” Rickelton said. On Wednesday, Cricbuzz confirmed with BCB president Nazmul Hasan that Domingo had indeed wanted Bangladesh to bat first should Mominul Haque have won the toss at Kingsmead. But Mominul chose to field, and will thus have to bear a large portion of the responsibility for his team being dismissed for 53 — their record low in South Africa — in the second innings.

Rickelton all but implored South Africa’s opponents to do better next time by listening to the expertise they have at hand: “With Russell being from here and Allan [Donald, the bowling coach] having played a hell of a lot of cricket here, there’s valuable insight they need to exploit. It will be an unknown ground for a majority of their players, so if you have someone who lives here and knows the ground like the back of their hand you really need to invest in what they have to say and understand that he knows what he’s talking about.”

But the Bangladeshis seem determined to self-destruct and are blaming everyone except themselves for the mess they made of the first Test, including the umpires and, bizarrely, the malfunctioning sightscreen.

BCB cricket operations chair Jalal Yunus has been quoted as saying: “There hasn’t been impartial umpiring in this Test match. It started on the first day. We were held up for half-an-hour at the start of the game due to the sightscreen. We were deprived of the initial advantage. To make up this half-an-hour, they extended the lunch session, instead of starting early, which we usually see. It is definitely at the umpire’s discretion, but generally we see them making up for lost time by starting early.”

If Yunus has been quoted accurately, his comments are at best farcical and at worst dishonest. To try to besmirch the impartiality of Marais Erasmus and Adrian Holdstock — who are both South African — because of a sightscreen glitch is scandalously wrong. Nobody on a cricket ground is more intent on getting play going at the earliest opportunity than umpires. And Yunus would surely have been party to the memorandum of understanding agreed by CSA and the BCB — which clearly states that lost time will not be made up on subsequent mornings.

Other Bangladeshis have implied the umpires made biased decisions, including Shakib al Hasan — despite him being thousands of kilometres away in the US. None of the complainants has yet interrogated the unimpeachable fact that, of the eight calls that were overturned on review in the match, four favoured South Africa and four favoured Bangladesh.

The Bangladeshis have also alleged that their players were unfairly sledged by the South Africans at Kingsmead, despite Ebadot Hossain having been central to the only obviously unsavoury on-field episode. Seemingly annoyed by a fielder not being where he wanted him, Ebadot took out his frustration on Elgar, who was safely in his ground when the fast bowler hurled the ball in the South African’s direction. Still not satisfied, Ebadot launched an emotional verbal tirade at Elgar that required Holdstock’s intervention to restore calm.

Aggression is part of the game. Impotent rage for no apparent reason is not. The Bangladeshis would do well to remember that, and this, too: when they look for reasons why matters went so badly wrong for them, they can’t blame Durban.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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