Graeme Smith believes the debate around transformation in South African cricket has been clouded by emotion, and that away from the national men’s team, Cricket SA has achieved many successes in terms of development.
CSA’s interim director of cricket, has along with the Proteas’ new head coach Mark Boucher and captain Faf du Plessis, been caught in a storm of controversy over transformation, particularly as it relates to the national men’s team, who in the Test series against England have fielded just one black African player.
With Kagiso Rabada suspended from the last Test that starts at the Wanderers tomorrow, Smith, Boucher and Du Plessis will face further scrutiny about the final eleven that will play that match. “I think, there’s been a lot of emotion. But looking at the facts, around the national team, whites have replaced whites - I replaced Corrie (van Zyl), Dale Benkenstein and Claude Henderson were replaced by Jacques Kallis and Paul Harris. The emotions and sentiments have been very different in the media,” said Smith, who was appointed in December.
“Cricket South Africa have spent hundreds of millions in the last two years on development. For me seeing behind the scenes how much money has been spent, it’s massive. It probably hasn’t generated the number of quality players we wanted across the board, so maybe we need to look at being more strategic; have more mental programmes, how we scout talent, bring people through in the short term. We need to look at the system and figure out why it hasn’t been as effective as it should, given the amount of money that CSA is spending.”
Smith pointed to the ODI squad which was named earlier this week as a sign that he, the coaching staff and the selectors were firm about providing players, with opportunities, if they have performed well at domestic level.
“I don’t think we are going to please everybody,” he said. “There is a lot of success out there, and we need to get that message out. I think this one-day squad is a sign of that success, it’s a real sign for the future. Players have earned their right to be there. There has been a lot of emotion around the Test side, but I feel going forward, CSA at a higher level will meet all those expectations around those transformation policies.”The ODI squad contains five black African players and Smith said concerns over the Proteas not achieving their target of 56% over the course of the season, aren’t warranted. “We will make the target,” Smith said.
Development of players throughout the system needed to improve with coaching set to come under close scrutiny. “We have to get the best coaching in the structures to ensure we are developing the best players. So that the talent we are producing will grow into something substantial.”
Smith said he had barely touched the surface as far as understanding CSA’s systems. “It’s hard in three weeks, I still need to figure that stuff out. There needs to be a two-pronged approach - how do we identify talent better, how do we bring it through faster and how do we upskill coaching. We have lost a number of senior players, how we build that and create heroes as we bring people through,” Smith said. “Then we need to look at the system; what is that system, the pipeline from Under-19s through to national academies, how are we introducing people to the game. There is a lot of money being spent, but is it being done so effectively, that is what I want to understand at the moment.”
And there is an onus on the players as well. “Players across the board need to stand up and perform. There are opportunities, we need the players to come through and perform as well.”
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