All About Johan Botha
Graeme Smith passes the baton to Johan Botha.
Offspinner Johan Botha has been named captain of South Africa’s Twenty20 team, replacing Graeme Smith, who stood down. Smith remains captain of the Test side and will continue to captain the one-day side until the end of the World Cup.
“Johan was the unanimous choice of the Board and we have every confidence that he will do an excellent job leading up to the next edition of the ICC World Twenty20 in 2012,” Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola said.
Born in 1982, Botha stood in for Smith during the limited-overs leg of South Africa’s tour of Australia in 2009, leading the team to a series win. That experience appears to have convinced CSA he is the right man for the job.
“Johan has an excellent record as a leader,” selection convener Andrew Hudson said. “He was an inspirational captain when he stood in for Smith in the ODI series victory in Australia in 2009. His appointment is part of the process of refreshing our Pro20 squad and also deciding whether to follow the route of having different captains for different formats of the game.”
Botha said he had enjoyed his earlier taste of the captaincy was hopeful he would do well enough so that when the time came, he would be considered for the one-day captaincy as well.
Botha has played 21 Twenty20 internationals, taking 22 wickets at an average of 19.18 and scoring 113 runs at an average of 18.83.
His test debut was in Australia in January 2006 and his last test was against the West Indies in June this year.
His ODI debut was against India in November 2005.
He began his career as an ordinary medium pacer for the Eastern Cape Warriors – by his own admission he was quicker than 125 kmph – but it was after Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, had a look at him in the nets and saw something else that Botha dropped his ambitions for speed.
Spurred by Arthur’s comments that he would do well to turn to spin, Botha remodeled his action and began studying the art of the doosra – the ball that turns away from the right-handed batsman – in hopes of emulating the wiles of Harbhajan Singh. A successful tour of Sri Lanka with the South Africa A side – in which he took key wickets as well as scoring runs – saw Botha’s name penciled in as a potential spinning allrounder.
A determined, fiercely competitive individual, Botha found a place in the squad to tour India for a five-match one-day series after Nicky Boje pulled out over security concerns in regard to charges of matchfixing.
His debut – in the first match at Hyderabad – resulted in 31 runs from six overs with the wicket of Irfan Pathan, bowled through the gate. Both Arthur and Graeme Smith rated him highly and saw him as vital to South Africa’s progress towards the World Cup.
But his career came to a grinding halt when his action was cited on his Test debut in January 2006, and following testing at the University of Western Australia, he was banned by the ICC.
Botha reworked his action but it was confirmed once again in September that he bent his arm more than 15 degrees. However, after another review in November, Botha’s action was cleared by the ICC. He made his comeback during the 2007 Afro-Asia Cup and returned to the South African one-day team during the tour of Pakistan in 2007-08.
His stock as a resourceful and intelligent one-day cricketer continued to rise, and Botha captained the limited-overs leg of South Africa’s trip to Australia in Graeme Smith’s absence, leading the team to a series win. Though he has faced competition for his place as a spinning allrounder from Roelof van der Merwe, Botha remains a fixture in South Africa’s one-day set-up.
Courtesy of Cricinfo and iafrica.com
Gary Kirsten To Extend Contract In India Until 2011
The Board of Control for Cricket in India wants to extend coach Gary Kirsten’s contract until the 2011 World Cup.
The former South Africa opening batsman signed a two-year contract with the BCCI in March 2008 and media reports suggested that he would return to his homeland at the end of his term next month.
“He will continue his stint with the Indian team,” said the BCCI president, Shanshank Manohar. “We will renew his contract.”
Kirsten has been rumoured to be the front-runner to take over the South Africa team following Mickey Arthur’s departure from the helm last week, although he said: “I have not been contacted by Cricket South Africa.”.
South Africa, under caretaker coach Corrie van Zyl, are currently in India for two Tests and three one-day internationals, starting this weekend.
Have your say: Do you think Cricket South Africa is making a mistake by not talking to Kirsten about coaching SA?
Thanks to the guardian.co.uk
What SA Cricket Needs Now
New cricket coach, Corrie van Zyl is under pressure to fill Mickey Arthur's shoes.
Van Zyl has taken over from Mickey Arthur with the pressures of filling his shoes, so how does van Zyl intend to handle the South African team?
In the early 1990s, Corrie van Zyl and Mickey Arthur both played for Free State and both became cricket coaches after their playing days.
Arthur coached the relatively small province of Griqualand West, while van Zyl was the assistant to three national coaches. In 2005, roles reversed – almost.
Arthur was appointed national coach while van Zyl had already left the South African set up to go back to his roots.
“I went back to the Free State and coached the Eagles from the beginning of the franchise system (2004-05) until last season,” van Zyl said.
He won six titles while in charge and had his eye on the country’s top coaching job. “I was hoping to take over from Mickey at some stage.” On Tuesday this week, van Zyl got his wish.
“I would have wanted it to do it under different circumstances and would have preferred it if it was on Mickey’s own terms,” van Zyl said. “But this is the last time I will speak about how tough it is to take over at such short notice.”
Van Zyl’s Coaching Style
Although van Zyl has been appointed in interim capacity for the tour to India, he wants to use the opportunity to stamp his coaching style on the national side.
His biggest rule is discipline. “I believe in team culture. The team must look after discipline and if they can’t then it becomes my responsibility. I will not pass the buck on that.”
While the South African team is an outfit that’s well known for its professionalism, van Zyl has promised to intensify this trait within the team.
Sarel Cilliers, who took over the coaching of the Eagles when van Zyl ended his tenure at the end of the 2008-09 season, confirmed that van Zyl’s style may take the South Africans by surprise. “He is very disciplined, has a great work ethic and intense knowledge of the game. He will not compromise at all when it comes to preparation and brings a lot of structure to the team.”
A calming influence is certainly necessary for South Africa, especially considering recent events.
Van Zyl said he wants every member of the team to feel at ease.
Van Zyl told Cricinfo he hadn’t had the time to think about any other strategies ahead of the India tour, but would be using the next few days to focus on that.
According to Cilliers, van Zyl’s plans are likely to involve every member of the team. “He will be good for the experienced players, because he will give them the freedom to do their thing and he will also play a strong mentoring role for the younger guys.” Van Zyl is known for his ability to work with junior players.
Prior to his appointment as interim coach of the national side, he was in charge of the High Performance Program and had the responsibility of identifying and training potential international players.
Van Zyl will not rule out accepting the job of South African coach permanently. “Any coach that is worth his salt would want to coach at national level. I would be foolish to turn it down.”
Courtesy of Cricinfo
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you think this is what the SA cricket team need now? Will his coaching style work?
Arthur’s Hefty Payout
Corrie van Zyl is taking over from Mickey Arthur (above).
Former Proteas coach Mickey Arthur has reportedly received a hefty payout from Cricket South Africa (CSA) after resigning from his post earlier this week.
Arthur officially announced his resignation at a press conference in East London on Wednesday morning, citing differences with the CSA board over structural changes as his reason for standing down.
CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said that Arthur had wanted to be in charge of appointing his support staff, while the CSA board felt changes were necessary.
“In the past few years, the coach has been able to appoint his own staff but, after speaking to the players, the board felt changes were necessary,” he said.
Majola denied media speculation that Arthur had failed transformation targets in terms of selecting black players.
“Mickey’s resignation is not for any reasons of transformation. As far as we are concerned, he achieved his targets.”
According to the Cape Times, Arthur, whose contract with CSA was set to run until 2012, is set to receive a payout of R4.5-million.
Corrie van Zyl, meanwhile, has been named as the team’s interim coach, with Barnes continuing in his role as bowling coach, and Kepler Wessels joining the management team as the batting coach for the Proteas tour of India.
Van Zyl admits that the timing of his appointment was not ideal, but is confident that the disruption to the team’s preparations for the series against India will be minimal.
Van Zyl and Wessels will also assume the role of selectors, along with Majola, who will be the acting convener.
Courtesy of iafrica.com
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you think this has anything to do with quota systems? And what do you think will eventually be the repercussions of all these changes?
Related articles by Zemanta
Selection Panel Shocker
Proteas chairman of selectors Mike Proctor gets ready to face the music.
Just two days after the surprise resignation of national coach Mickey Arthur, Cricket South Africa has fired off another curveball…
Not only is Arthur out of the Proteas set-up, but the entire selection panel – headed by Mike Proctor – has been sacked. Proctor, who was the chairman of selectors, confirmed this news on a local radio station in Johannesburg this morning.
Proctor was in the spotlight earlier this month, when he made a huge error in calling up Pakistani-born spinner Imran Tahir for the Proteas squad, even though Tahir (who married a South African woman) wasn’t eligible to play for South Africa.
Now Proctor, along with his fellow selectors Craig Matthews, Winky Ximiya and Mustapha Khan, are out in the cold after the surprise dismissal.
“I had a phone call early yesterday morning, Gerald Majola informing me that this selection panel would not be required in future,” Procter told eNews. “Everyone was told that this was going to be a talk after the series. We were just going to make some presentations. They weren’t going to come after anyone. It wasn’t going to be a witch hunt.
An interim selection panel will be selected to serve until February 19.
Loading ...
.PNG){kind=icon}
