South Africa - Not entirely in control

Who's driving South African cricket's rally car?

Ken Borland

February 1, 2005

Graeme Smith has to improve performances even though he has no say in the team's final selection © Getty Images

Ray Jennings was installed as South African coach until the end of the West Indies tour in May, charged with turning around their fortunes after a disastrous 2003-04. It seems strange then that he will be judged after his six months in charge when he was never really in charge after all.

South Africa stumbled to defeat in the Test series against England and in the first one-day international, fanning the fires of debate about whether the controversial, eccentric Jennings is the right man for the job. Jennings' woes have been compounded by the fact that he is unable to modify public perceptions of himself by explaining clearly what his plans and strategies for the team are. This has much to do with neither Jennings nor Graeme Smith having the final say in selection matters.

Jennings and Smith are in the front seats of South African cricket's rally car as it skids through muddy patches and bashes against rocks without ever really finding the open road. Perhaps this is because the selectors, sitting in the back seat, are doing the driving and navigating.

Under Rushdi Magiet, Omar Henry and now Haroon Lorgat, South African selection has usually been baffling and often seriously detrimental to the exciting prospects these selection convenors were meant to nurture. And yet, like third-force figures that keep to the shadows, the selectors are nowhere near the front line when the team performs badly and the public is taking pot shots. It is precisely because the captain and coach are always the first to get it in the neck, that they should have control of the team that takes the field.

Many of those at the Wanderers for the weekend's opening one-dayer were baffled by the decision not to include AB de Villiers, fresh off his innings of 92 and 109 in the final Test, especially since he is an accomplished limited-overs player. It has been learnt that both Jennings and Smith wanted the find of the Test series in the starting XI, and, during the warm-ups on the field, there was much toing and froing and harsh words spoken between them and Lorgat.

Ashwell Prince and Adam Bacher played instead, and South Africa batted dismally, their morale once again dented by a selection controversy. Jennings and Smith have just one interest - and that is to play winning cricket - and their wishes should therefore be paramount whilst they are in charge. Jennings was told to change South African cricket when he was appointed in October, but his hands have been tied so his progress has been limited.

Some of the other changes Jennings apparently wants to implement are to bat Jacques Kallis at four permanently and to take the new ball away from Shaun Pollock. But the selectors not only have the final say on which 11 players take the field, but also, amazingly, their specific roles.

Selection panels are obviously important because they need to prowl the back streets of our domestic game to run the rule over players ready to step up to international level - a job Jennings cannot do properly given his commitments with the national team.

The order of things in the Australian and English teams is that the selectors choose the squad, captain and coach and then pick their XI, an approach that has paid dividends in recent years.

Now that South Africa once again finds itself backed into a corner, wouldn't it be a fine time to give Jennings and Smith the freedom they should have as the leaders of the side?

Ken Borland is a journalist with the MWP Sports Agency in South Africa.

© Cricinfo

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