Johannesburg: Ray Jennings was on the road to nowhere when he left for the Caribbean seven weeks ago. There were no plans to renew his contract as senior national coach but, without his knowing this, he applied anyway.
Now cricket is faced with a dilemma. How do you dump a coach who has just marshalled the team to victory in both the test and ODI series in the West Indies?
Or perhaps it doesn't matter that Jennings, in his brief caretaker term, has at no point looked to be losing the plot. In his 13 tests as coach, the team have lost three matches (five wins, five draws) and in 13 ODIs they have lost just once to England.
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After his emergency appointment last October, we suggested he had been handed a poison chalice. The South African team was in an ongoing slump and there was a poorly scheduled series in prospect in India followed by high-riding England at home.
It looked like he was merely being set up to fail while cricket bought enough time to find the right coach. He has rather confounded that theory. The point, however, is that sources close to Cricket South Africa, the national professional body, are adamant that his application was never under serious scrutiny prior to the West Indies tour.
He went there announcing it was "the most crucial series of my career" and was bold enough to say his team was aiming for a whitewash - in an area of the cricket-playing world he had never previously visited.
What they did do was win the four-match test series 2-0 and the five-match ODI series 3-0 in quite spectacular style with this weekend's final two matches to come.
Yet the sources say that the official line prior to the West Indies tour was that he would be dumped because (a) he was viewed as something of an outspoken maverick by twitchy officials and (b) some of the players questioned his technical know-how. What are they saying now?
Do they acknowledge that, by way of one example, he has inspired another maverick, Andre Nel, from being a skittish and risky performer to a world-class fast bowler?
It would be interesting to know how many other coaches really applied to Cricket South Africa's global advertisement. Many names have been bandied around but, as it turns out, some were apparently leaked to the media only to serve as red herrings.
We are told that New Zealand's John Wright, formerly coach of India, was one of these bogus applicants. Or was he? Perhaps our sources are being sold another dummy.
Other foreign names mentioned were Zimbabwean Duncan Fletcher, currently with England, and the Australians Rodney Marsh, Geoff Marsh, Steve Waugh, Steve Rixon and Tom Moody, who as it turns out is short-listed for the vacant India job.
South Africans definitely in the mix are Jennings's current assistant Vincent Barnes and Mickey Arthur, head coach of the Eastern Cape Warriors. The identity of the new coach will be made known on Thursday.
It is a secret guarded more closely than a Vatican ballot.
The panel who are deciding on the issue are Cricket SA chief executive Gerald Majola (chairman), the national president Ray Mali (in an ex-officio capacity), the ubiquitous Cape Town advocate Norman Arendse (who was also on the panel to adjudicate the new Super 14 rugby franchises) and former international cricketers Mike Procter, Andrew Hudson and Errol Stewart (who represents the players' union). Who will their choice be?
On Wednesday, talk in cricket circles suggested Mickey Arthur. On Thursday, it was definitely Vincent Barnes, with Arthur as his assistant. Where does this all leave "Jet" Jennings?
The West Indies, for one, could surely use his style of coaching.
- This article was originally published on page 29 of Saturday Argus on May 14, 2005
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