Proteas coach Mark Boucher hinted at the need for a permanent batting coach after South Africa’s repeated batting failures against Pakistan, according to News24.
Neil McKenzie is Cricket South Africa’s current high-performance batting lead and works with all the national teams.
Legendary South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis’s stint with England, during their successful Sri Lankan sojourn, was highly criticised after Kallis expressed his sadness with regard to not being able to work with South Africa because of Cricket South Africa’s transformation policies.
Boucher, who played with Kallis, said before the South African team went to Pakistan that he would have loved to have Kallis on the staff roster.
Boucher, fielding coach Justin Ontong, and assistant coach Enoch Nkwe had shared the batting coach duties in Pakistan.
“I worked with the guys technically. Justin also takes a few of the batters as well, but we don’t have a specific batting coach. We’d all have a look at the guys and see how we can help,” Boucher said.
The IRR has taken a very firm position against race-based empowerment. If the cricket authorities use race as the main criterion for appointments, Kallis should not be criticised for raising it as a bar to his appointment. To lose the opportunity to use Kallis’s skills to develop young talent is a tragedy.
A country that does not use merit as its chief criterion for employment is doomed to fail.
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