By CricketCountry Staff
South Africa coach Gary Kirsten believes that the country’s policy of blooding different players for different formats will help them to flourish them in the future.
Published: Mar 06, 2012, 12:17 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 06, 2012, 12:17 PM (IST)
Gary Kirsten took over as South Africa coach after the end of 2011 ICC World Cup © Getty Images
By CricketCountry Staff
Dunedin: Mar 6, 2012
South Africa coach Gary Kirsten believes that the country’s policy of blooding different players for different formats will help them to flourish them in the future.
Talking to the media ahead of their first Test match at Dunedin, Kirsten said, “It’s very exciting for South African cricket. Not only are we selecting a lot of different players for the different formats, but they are rising to the challenge and putting in huge performances. It’s a great sign for the future.”
Kirsten, who rose to fame with his coaching stint with the Indian cricket team, wants to have a South African national squad of 20 players within two years.
“We have five new players, how quickly can they prepare, physically and mentally? One bad session, and we can be in trouble early. We have spoken about the need to be sharp straight away when the Test series starts, we can’t affords to be caught napping,” he was quoted as saying by Sports24.
Kirsten added: “The last day of my Test career (in Wellington, 2004) it was nine degrees! But talk is cheap, we just need to go out there and experience it. We can prepare the players as well as we can, but they have to go out there and do it.”
The South African coach said they will assess the pitch and conditions and will take a decision of playing a spinner in the first Test. “I think you need a spinner in a Test match. But let’s see what the next 48 hours serves up,” he said.
