Has Kirsten left a lasting legacy with the Proteas?

Family a priority for SA coach now, but he might just be back

DOWN in the basement of The Oval, Gary Kirsten played out his final act as Proteas head coach. After engaging the media one last time with his alwaysinsightful thoughts, Kirsten made a hasty path to the exit after the press conference.

Some would say Kirsten was making a run for it. In the same way that he is running away from the job after holding it down for just two years. There are many who believe Kirsten still has unfinished business with the Proteas, especially in the light of South Africa’s failure to overcome the pressure of a semi-final at the Champions Trophy.

Those are the same people who will always define Kirsten’s tenure in two separate segments: his indisputable achievements with the Proteas Test side in assisting with their ascent to the No 1 ICC ranking and limited success with the one-day and Twenty20 teams.

I view matters in a different light. And I wasn’t even on those team-building camps in Switzerland or Amsterdam and neither on those glorious Test tours of Australia and England last year.

Kirsten’s Test numbers of 12 wins, five draws and two losses, will ensure he holds the record of being South Africa’s most successful Test coach. Contrastingly, his one-day figures of 29 matches, 15 wins and 12 defeats leaves him trailing the likes of Bob Woolmer and Graham Ford.

To evaluate Kirsten solely on the figures would be an injustice to the man. He has said countless times before that he may be judged on the statistics in the ‘W’ column, but that is not the reason why he gets out of bed every morning.

This was noticeably evident recently in Cardiff, after the team’s progression to the semifinals on Duckworth- Lewis after playing to a thrilling tie against the West Indies.

To him cricket remains a fickle game, for had West Indies all- rounder Kieron Pollard blocked and not swung at the final ball before the players walked off for good, Kirsten

The Test team moved to new heights. We’ve got an incredibly strong senior player base. They are the heartbeat of the team and they drive the values and the culture of the team, so I move away very comfortable that that is in place. Anything else?

The comments that a lot of the young players have made about how comfortable they feel in the environment and how they feel straight away they can make significant performances. Have you left the Proteas ODI team in a better state than you found it in?

I don’t know if I’ve left them in a better state because I certainly would have liked to have taken the team to at least the final, which I haven’t been able to do. We certainly haven’t improved, and that’s where the question mark needs to come over me, so maybe it’s a good decision that I’m leaving. As a coach, you always want to take the team forward in some way. Happy with the depth in SA cricket?

Yeah, I think we’ve tried, certainly in my two years with the team. We’ve had 16 new players play on the (ODI) team, so we’ve certainly explored the talent in South African cricket. I think there is still more out there. At some point you need to find some stability.

Choking? It’s a horrible word. It does get used. We’ve spoken about it; we’ve been up-front about it as a team. An uncomfortable word, that we’ve become comfortable with, and you have to accept that that’s what it is. would have been lined up for the firing squad instead of being bought a round of drinks.

The former Proteas opener has a holistic approach to life and guiding young men, and in return expected them to conduct themselves appropriately in return. During his reign, out went curfews and in came breaks between tour games. Out went mandatory training too, to be replaced with “optional” training.

It was never going to be universally popular, especially amongst the hard- line oldschoolers, but when in the his- tory of time has a revolution not been met with resistance? The term “revolution” was used intentionally, for Kirsten was trying change the entire mindset of South African cricket by taking it into a galaxy they had never dared to enter before.

He once sat me down once in a hotel lobby and said a real dream of his was to have a practice that lasted just one hour from the time the players got off and back on to the bus.

When I enquired about the reasoning behind it, he simply said way too much time was wasted at training with players just sitting around unproductively. He always prioritised intensity and quality over quantity.

To further understand Kirsten’s ideas on life, you must recognise that his young family is obviously very important to him.

It was this ethos that he tried to spread across to the Proteas teams in the hope they would realise cricket remains merely a game, and that there were other things in life that required attention. It was not a distraction tactic, but rather one built on the sound theory that his team would remain calm under severe pressure because they knew it was not their Alpha and Omega.

It was universally accepted in the Test side, partially because they were older and experiencing various changes of circumstances in their personal lives. The younger group in the limited-overs teams has taken longer to grasp this philosophy, with Kirsten admitting “If we had the secret recipe to turn it around, we’d certainly package it and be selling it.”

Gary Kirsten has certainly left a lasting impression. He did so as a player, walking up the stairs of Wellington’s Basin Reserve with tears streaming down his face after playing the final innings of his 101 Tests.

There were no tears at The Oval when Kirsten left the hot seat after his final innings as Proteas coach. Perhaps, deep down, Kirsten knows once his family have settled into their daily routines, he will be able return to complete his unfinished business.

MOVING ON: Gary Kirsten is disappointed not to have made the Champions Trophy final, but pleased that 16 new players have been given opprtunities in the ODI line-up.