Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming has applied for the vacant Cape Cobras coaching position. Black Caps legend Fleming was one of the leading candidates for the Proteas head coach position last year, which was ultimately filled by Gary Kirsten, and is now in the running to succeed Richard Pybus at the Cobras.
The Cobras are without a coach at the moment after Pybus resigned in acrimonious circumstances at the end of last season. Pybus, who led the Cobras to all three domestic trophies during his two-year spell in Cape Town, cited “a range of issues to do with the CEO (chief executive André Odendaal)” as the primary reason for curtailing his tenure at Newlands.
The Cape Times has learnt that Fleming has submitted an application to coach South Africa’s 1-Day Cup champions. Applications for the post officially close tomorrow.
Fleming, however, would come with a hefty price tag. In addition to his experience of playing 111 Tests and 280 one-day internationals for the Black Caps, Fleming is the most successful coach in Indian Premier League history. Since taking over from former Proteas captain Kepler Wessells after IPL I, he has led the Chennai Super Kings to two successive IPL crowns and the Champions League Twenty20 championship.
The Western Cape Cricket Board would have to dig deep to satisfy Fleming’s financial needs, and what counts against the New Zealander is that there is a huge clamour currently in Western Cape cricket circles for a local coach to guide the Cobras.
For all Pybus’s success with the Cobras, there was a growing feeling within the team ranks that the Englishman had lost touch with a certain group of his players. This later boiled over into great discontent. These fractions led to an ultimately dismal T20 series, with the 2010-11 champions failing to even reach the final in order to qualify for the lucrative Champions League T20.
It is no surprise therefore that Saliegh Nackerdien from Western Province and Boland’s Barney Mohamed are probably the front-runners for the position. Both have submitted their applications after serving long apprenticeships as provincial coaches in the second tier of South African first-class cricket.
Nackerdien guided the Boland side before joining up with the WP Amateur team, where he won the three-day and 1-Day Cup double in 2010-11. Mohamed, meanwhile, coached Province during the mid-2000s, with a spell as Uganda national coach between joining Boland last year. Both also have first-class playing experience. Nackerdien was a former batsman, and Mohamed an opening bowler.
Another local candidate who comes into the reckoning is former Proteas spinner Paul Adams. The retired chinaman bowler has made rapid strides in his coaching development since calling time on his playing career two seasons ago. Adams has primarily worked with the spinners around the country through a Cricket South Africa initiative. The 35-year-old was recently also Vincent Barnes’s assistant at the Impi in last season’s T20 Challenge. Adams would be a bold choice considering his lack of head coach experience. – Cape Times