Woolly Thinking in Great Demand- Pakistan report from the Cricketer International (16 January 1999)

16 January 1999

Woolly Thinking in Great Demand- Pakistan report from the Cricketer International

Cricketer International

BOB WOOLMER will play a pivotal role in the United Cricket Board's future development programme if plans being worked out by himself and the UCB's managing director, Ali Bacher, come to fruition. Woolmer's contract as South African national coach expires after the World Cup on June 20, bringing to an end a highly successfully five-year period as chief mentor and tactician of Hansie Cronje's squad.

With David Lloyd expected to step down from the similar position in England, Woolmer has already been widely touted for that job, although there has been no official approach from the ECB. But both Woolmer and Bacher see his future in South Africa, and wisely so. 'There is nobody in South African cricket who would contest the fact that Bob has brought enormous coaching expertise to the game in this country,' he said.

'We would be mad not to want to continue to make use of his services in a part-time capacity and I will be making certain recommendations to my executive board in this regard,' Bacher continued. 'The best area for him to work would seem to be with our national age-group sides. There are a lot of them now and they are the key area in bringing players from disadvantaged backgrounds through to our national merit squads.'

Woolmer has always had a strong social conscience and it is shown in a track record that saw him actively involved in the coaching of the Langa and Avendale club sides in Cape Town as well as the running of the John Passmore XI at the Nuffield Week.

Woolmer's own vision for the future is to develop a coaching academy in Cape Town for a start and gradually to expand it throughout the country, which will enable him to become to South African cricket what Dave Leadbetter does for the golfers on the US PGA circuit. But he would also like to see it linked to a social upliftment programme.

'There is so much work that needs to be done on young cricketers from underprivileged backgrounds to bring them through to the required standard. Cricket is a very complex game and it is not just a case of having talent,' said Woolmer. 'I have already had discussions with the council to acquire ground in Cape Town for the project and I am having on-going discussions with potential sponsors.

'I am not discarding any of my options at the moment but my heart is in South Africa and, in particular, in South African cricket. This is where I see my future, although I may well have to go and work on the county circuit for the next five years while I am setting up this project and making it financially viable. I also want a professional future that means a lot less travelling, a lot less stress, a lot more time with my family and a lot more golf!'

This is good news for South Africa, where experienced cricket coaches are extremely thin on the ground. This is borne out by the number of foreign coaches currently running South African senior provincial sides.

Given the ever increasing pressure on the UCB from politicians going into an election year, the most significant domestic event was the appointment of Thami Tsolekile as captain of both the SA Schools team and South African Under-19s, who are touring Pakistan.

Tsolekile, a wicket-keeper/batsman, is a rare talent who turned down the opportunity to play for South Africa's senior international hockey squad to pursue a cricket career that will see him spend the middle part of the year at the national academy.

He recently made his senior debut for Western Province in the night series and the fact that he comes from Langa township would have been an enormous source of pride to the late John Passmore, who did so much to get the game up and running in the area. His uncle, Khaya Tsolekile, played for the Passmore XI as a schoolboy at the Nuffield Week in 1986, making a half-century against Transvaal, while his grandfather, Hlubi Zibi, was a founder member and early star of the Langa club.

The Under-19s are perhaps the strongest yet produced, which says a lot for the quality of work being done in the development programmes - and not just in the black areas. Tsolekile is one of seven in the squad to have played senior provincial cricket.

South Africa Under-19 squad to tour Pakistan: Thami Tsolekile (captain), Jacques Rudolph (vice-captain), Umar Abrahams, Sean Adam, Ahmed Amla, Con de Lange, Willem du Toit, Victor Mpitsang, Johan Myburgh, Albert Nkomo, Justin Ontong, Andrew Puttick, Graham Smith, Jonathan Trott, Michael Williams.

The UCB has completed the groundwork for next season's pool system, which will see all 11 provinces granted A-section status but with a limit of 17 players per provincial squad, not counting the senior national players contracted to the UCB.

This, inevitably, means that a lot of the young emerging talent is going to have to be loaned by the larger provinces to their smaller neighbours. All provinces are also going to have to promote actively players of colour and, in a strongly worded comment, Ali Bacher warned provinces to select 'with their hearts as well as with their heads' to avoid the introduction of an official quota system.

Border remain the team of the season, currently lying top on the SuperSport Series (four-day) log and second in the night series. Their star has been Vasbert Drakes who was called up to strengthen a depleted West Indies Test side for the Fourth Test in Cape Town, both as a fast bowler and as a lower-order batsman. He has already taken nearly 40 wickets in five four-day matches.

Border have won four out of five matches outright and are comfortably clear of Gauteng, Eastern Province, Free State, Northerns and Western Province who have all won twice. The position should be much clearer when Border play Gauteng and Eastern Province host Western Province in the next round.

The UCB have reverted to the system of having a final for the four-day competition, which means that the battle for second place is just as relevant as that for first.

KwaZulu-Natal reinstated Graham Ford, the South African A coach, as their coach in place of the young and inexperienced Frans Cronje (Hansie's older brother). The change in their fortunes was immediate as they thumped Boland by an innings.