BBC SPORT | Cricket | SA seek inspiration



By Oliver Brett BBC Sport Online

After sacking the selectors, they then got rid of the coach.

The United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) are doing nothing by halves at the moment, and presumably captain Shaun Pollock will begin to start feeling anxious soon.

But South Africa only have a couple of months before their next engagement - a one-day tournament in Morocco in August.

And top priority is to name coach Graham Ford's successor as soon as possible.

One thing appears immediately evident.

Graham Ford was sacked on Saturday

However strong the feelings are in terms of building for the future and putting the past behind, there is a very real need to win the World Cup on home soil.

And that may be something which would create intolerable pressure for a novice coach.

Bob Woolmer did the job for five years up to 1999 and still feels there is unfinished business to take care of.

It was in his last year in charge, of course, that South Africa twice snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against Australia.

The tie at Edgbaston in the semi-final was particularly hard to take.

"He felt they were the best side in the world at the time," says Marcus Prior, a South African journalist.

"Hansie Cronje took it very hard and I know Bob Woolmer also took it very hard.

Woolmer would accept a short-term post

"A short-term contract now would be a perfect opportunity for him to complete a job that he feels was never completed."

Woolmer is disillusioned with the way South African cricket has been run in the last two years, and the way that advice from figures such as himself has rarely been sought.

There is one major factor preventing Woolmer accepting a short-term contract, even presuming the UCBSA is minded to offer him one.

He has been signed up by the International Cricket Council to coach four teams - Canada, the Netherlands, Kenya and Namibia - in their preparations for the World Cup.

It would surely create an enormous conflict of interests if he looked after them, and also South Africa.

But he may feel he can negotiate a deal with the ICC, because he has a team of coaches helping him with the non-Test sides.

If Woolmer was handed a short-term role, the ICC would still have to consider the post-World Cup situation.

Looking beyond three strong candidates who are throwing their hats into the ring as provincial coaches, Kepler Wessels stands out.

Wessels, who represented Australia while his country of birth was in sporting isolation, returned to captain South Africa.

Now 44, he was the guiding influence behind stars like Cronje, Allan Donald, Gary Kirsten and Jonty Rhodes.

And in his 16 Tests as captain, he led a fledgling team to five wins and only three defeats.

Prior says: "Wessels would be a very popular choice with the South African public but as far as the Board's concerned he's a tricky appointment.

"He's an outspoken individual but at the same time it might be beneficial for them to swallow some pride and appoint Wessels."

Eric Simons briefly represented his country

The chisel-jawed former left-hander has a clear agenda and in some ways he would come as a breath of fresh air after Ford's quietly-stated diplomacy.

As for the three candidates from the provinces, the strongest of them is 40-year-old Eric Simons.

He has turned Western Province into the Manchester United of South Africa cricket, turning them into a utterly driven, professional organisation captained by the ambitious H.D. Ackerman.

The downside to appointing Simons, however, is that he is a consensus-seeker, and may be too similar in style to Ford.

Nothern Transvaal's David Nosworthy is perhaps too young at 34, meanwhile, while Eldine Baptiste, the KwaZulu-Natal coach, is a West Indian, which may count against him.

Prior says of Baptiste: "Being West Indian is his biggest strength as well as his biggest weakness.

"South Africa really wants to be South African and Baptiste must be considered an outsider."


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