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- Cricket South Africa announced its high performance management team on Thursday.
- Ancient Proteas Assistant coach Malibongwe Maketa is South Africa’s ‘A’ head coach with Shukri Conrad appointed as SA 19 coach.
- Former Proteas hitter Neil McKenzie is back in the CSA fold when he is named a high-performance hitting coach.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Thursday it announced a new high-performance management team, including new heads of the SA ‘A’ and SA U-19 configurations.
The structure comes at a crucial time in South African cricket with the leadership of the CSA currently under the spotlight and facing massive public criticism.
According to a statement, the high-performance team “will work in concert with the Proteas male and female coaching staff to ensure that a steady stream of talent reaches the national team when needed.”
Former Proteas assistant coach Malibongwe Maketa will lead the SA ‘A’ configuration and the national academy, while Shukri Conrad will take over the SA Under-19.
Edward Khoza has been named Interim Director of Pathways (Development).
Maketa will coach SA “A” team, a position recently held by Cape Cobras coach Ashwell Prince.
There is also a return to the South African setup for former Proteas hitting consultant Neil McKenzie, who will operate as the high performance hitting leader, while Vincent Barnes will double as the high performance manager and bowling leader.
CSA Cricket Director Graeme Smith explained the appointments.
“Malibongwe has been involved in South African cricket for a long time, I think he is one of our outstanding coaches and I was very happy that he ran for the position and put his name on his hat,” he said.
“With the team of high-performance coaches around him, he has a real opportunity to strengthen the pipeline. The other thing about Malibongwe is that he has spent several years with the national team and has worked in the A-team position. Not just He’s a very good coach, he’s a good man, so I’m excited that he’s leading that department.
“The goal is to make sure that South African cricket is strong. We have a really powerful group of cricketers who can only strengthen the national team and can challenge the players on the national team. I feel like Malibongwe and the other High-Los Performance coaches can provide that and develop the game as well.
“Shukri has been in South African cricket too for a long period of time, at the franchise level, in High Performance and in Team A. I like Shukri’s style; he’s old school, he cuts to the chase and gets the job done. . I believe At that level, his experience as a coach and his knowledge of the game will be key. The other thing is the identification of talents, I think that is a real strength of Shukri’s skill as a coach and he has good support (in the form of scouts).
“Even before my arrival in December last year, there was a huge investment in women’s football. Trying to strengthen it not only financially, but also in the domestic and U-19 structures. We have appointed our first full-time U-19 team. Academy coach in Dinesha Devnarain and now the U19 World Cup is just around the corner. When you invest in these programs, you have to be patient, you have to develop them and it takes time to reach a level, but there are always expectations and We hope that our U-19 team will be successful and do well. That is the goal. “
Smith had brilliant words in his description of Khoza, expressing his pleasure in working with a member of the cricket group who is as knowledgeable and experienced as he is.
“Edward Khoza is a man who has been involved in cricket in South Africa for a long time and we have worked very closely since my arrival,” he continued.
“He has a lot of knowledge about the roads and the fact that they have put him in that position. I’m very excited about that. I don’t think I can have a better person in that position. He’s well loved, he’s a hardworking man, he loves the game. of cricket and he also has principles and the work he has done at all those levels, which is a great job – the cricket services department is a huge entity – having someone like Edward, his knowledge is a huge benefit to Cricket South Africa and we are lucky to have it.
“We will all sit down as a group and discuss and work our way forward and try to align ourselves as close to the national teams as we can, in terms of culture, in terms of performance, in terms of what it takes – for hopefully bring us to a level where our national teams are the best in the world, that they are winning World Cups, that we are contributing talent and we are transforming ourselves to a level that is acceptable to all. are the objectives with these appointments “.
Khoza, who has stepped down from his role as director of the Cricket Services department, also expressed his joy at the progress he and Smith have made in the appointments to these strategic roles. Speaking about the critical nature of the roles the appointees will play, particularly as CSA continues to finalize its return-to-play arrangements.
“We are privileged to announce high quality coaches in our environment under our revised high performance structure (Maketa, Conrad, McKenzie and Devnarain). These guys will lead the process in terms of ensuring CSA achieves its goal of making sure we can close the gap between international cricket and the national game. They will primarily focus on working with the best 48 players in the country in support of franchise coaches to ensure these identified players are well prepared and ready for international cricket, “he said. .
“We are fortunate that Malibongwe Maketa is the head coach of SA A and the National Academy, but outside of that, he will be working on the High Performance structure. This is to ensure that we share knowledge among the High Performance coaches. Malibongwe is a great seasoned Coach with Proteas experience and a high level of franchise experience, and it’s important that such a guy is working with our next best talent, he will also assist the women’s national team where and when his expertise is required.
“The SA U19, as individual players, have done exceptionally well in the last six years with Lawrence Mahatlane. We saw the emergence of players like Wandile Makwetu and Sinethemba Qeshile as examples of some of the young talents that have emerged and currently play in the franchise. cricket. As a unit, we have not delivered on the field of play. Shukri has worked with Academy players for quite some time under CSA and we believe he has the experience to make sure he can take us to the next one We want to make our mark and redeem ourselves in the main ICC competitions.
“The women’s space was not complete, if you think there was no major ICC event for that U19 age group. When the ICC announced that we would have a U19 ICC T20 competition, it pushed our retention strategy because now we can keep the players in the game longer.
“What we are looking to do now is make sure that we smoothly implement a process that can reflect what we are doing with the boys’ journey, where we will also have talent camps for the girls and we have also appointed a dedicated coach for the sub- 19, as well as the National Academy for Women in Dinesha Devnarain. We believe that you have done well enough that KZN Inland deserves such a position at CSA and we believe that you will do well in empowering the next generation of female players in cricket.
“Our ideal scenario is to look at women coaching women and this is part of the platform with which we have started creating real sporting opportunities for women who have played and can serve better.”
CSA High Performance Team:
– Acting Head of CSA Cricket Pathways: Edward Khoza
– South Africa A and National Academy Leader: Malibongwe Maketa
– SA Sub 19 Male Leader: Shukri Conrad
– High Performance Manager and Bowling Leader: Vincent Barnes
– High Performance Batting Leader: Neil McKenzie
– Head coach of the South African U19 National Women’s and Women’s Academy: Dinesha Devnarain
– Medical Director: Dr. Shuaib Manjra
– Compiled by Sport24 staff
