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Over the last year, South Africa have transformed from a squad that
could be counted on not to lose, especially over the course of an entire
series, to one that can be expected to win when it matters. A gradual
build-up of results took them to the brink but it was an added push that
tipped them over. Their change from solid to spectacular is what
allowed them to become world No. 1.
Their triumph in England - a second, successive series win in the
country - is proof that changes have taken place. Some of them are are
obvious and have come in the form of personnel. The addition of a third
seamer, Vernon Philander, genuinely complements the existing two, Dale
Steyn and Morne Morkel, and has given the pace attack an added dynamic.
Meanwhile, although the legspinner, Imran Tahir, has not performed to
expectation his mere presence forces a more attacking approach.
An entirely new coaching team is also in place with Gary Kirsten
transplanting some of the techniques he used with India, not from a
skills perspective but from a man management one. Allan Donald has
brought the added intent and Russell Domingo the knowledge of the local
game and masterful strategic planning through statistics, which is his
forte.
The most important change, though, is the one that does not stick out so
brazenly because it has come in the mind, through careful coaxing. To
ignore that South Africa stumbles in their own head space would be to
think of football without mentioning Brazil. Something held them back
like an invisible hand, the force that no-one could quite explain.
It was most evident at major tournaments when South Africa would reach
crucial stages and simply stop. It was less apparent in the Test format
but still there. The two draws they allowed England to get away with in
the 2009-10 series came with Andrew Strauss' men down to their last
wicket and South Africa's high quality attack was unable to dislodge it.
Take nothing away from the England tail, but those were matches South
Africa should have won and may have had they been mentally tougher.
To get there, they needed a different perspective. South African sport
was, and in some places still is, conducted like the army in its
rigidity and focus to discipline. It was not a space to be creative. It
was not a space to introduce too many outrageous ideas. It was not a
space to express. It was a space to do as you had been taught because
that was the way that would breed success. If they failed, and there
were times when they did, it was never the method that was at fault,
only the way they were executing it.
While South African sportsmen may have thought that way, all South
Africans did not. Unconnected to cricket, Mike Horn, the adventurer,
began his first mission. He swam down the Amazon River and when he grew
tired of that, decided to hike across South America, a journey that took
six months. As he conquered heat, he decided to opt for the other
extreme and spent two years and three months in the Arctic circle and
another three months in the ice of the North Pole.
For Horn, life was not about how well or thoroughly he followed
instructions but about how flexible he could make them. He always sought
something more demanding and always wanted to find a new way to handle
it. He did it all because he wanted to form a collage of different
events, with different degrees of difficulty to be the canvas on which
he painted his dreams. "If you don't have any challenges, you don't have
experience and if you don't have experience you haven't lived life,"
Horn told South African broadcaster Craig Marais.
It was that experience of the "other," that the South African team
lacked. Playing cricket was about cricket to most of them and
occasionally involved a round of golf. When Kirsten took over, he wanted
playing cricket to be about more than that.
| Simply put, Kirsten took the schoolmaster mentality away. That type of thinking is what Horn thinks often held South Africa back because it created a false ceiling of how much they could achieve | |||
He started by giving a team that had had their longest winter break in
14 season an inordinate amount of time off. Between the Australia
one-day series, which only contained three matches, two of which were
spread over five days, Kirsten allowed the squad to disperse. They had
been together but a week. In New Zealand, he sent Donald home early
while some of the squad went on a fishing trip. Traditional team dinners
the night before a Test became a thing of the past as well and in
Leeds, Jacques Rudolph was allowed out with his wife and friends and the
rest were not subjected to a compulsory squad meal.
Simply put, Kirsten took the schoolmaster mentality away. That type of
thinking is what Horn thinks often held South Africa back because it
created a false ceiling of how much they could achieve. "We all have
dreams as kids and some of the great dreams that we as South Africans
have is to play rugby or cricket for the national side," he said. "Once
you get to that stage where you get to play for the Proteas, their dream
actually stops but that's where it should start because you can only
rewrite history from there onwards."
Perhaps the legacy of South Africa's isolationist past, where
international sport was not an option for many who are now parents to
the children who are playing at a high level, is part of the reason for
this. Perhaps it is the effect of always chasing the leaders, instead of
leading themselves that has caught up with them. Horn believes the past
has a lot to do with it and said his has tried to exorcise the current
team of that.
"You have to get rid of all the garbage and baggage that slows you down.
I can't teach batting or bowling, but teaching how to be a better team
player is my contribution. I try to get the boys to think like one and
play as individuals but for the better of the team."
Their camp in Switzerland provided the biggest lesson in that. Gruelling
alpine tasks, such as cycling and walking at high altitude for miles,
brought them close together. After that was done, Kirsten allowed them
to be apart. Even practice sessions were not mandatory because as Alviro
Petersen explained, "if you feel you need some time out of the game and
that is going to work for you then you must do that."
By empowering his squad with freedom, Kirsten has created an environment
ripe to breed accountability and responsibility. Every member of that
team knows what is expected of them and knows that if they fail to
produce that, and have not prepared in the right way, it will be obvious
and there will be consequences. They also know that if they fail to
produce but have done everything possible to succeed, it will be part of
what Kirsten calls the "process," and eventually it will turn into
results.
A year into Kirsten's tenure he would have most thinking he has
brainwashed the side to repeat phrases like, "we are not a
results-oriented team," and "we are process driven." To the average
person those sound like empty phrases, made up to be deliberately obtuse
about plans. What they actually are is a sign of the change in the
South African mindset to one that is not afraid to fail along the way to
ultimate success and that is able to reach higher than it thought was
possible previously.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo's South Africa correspondent
Feeds: Firdose Moonda
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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