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A day after the junior Proteas were knocked out of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, coach Lawrence Mahatlane sat down with City Press and said that he would take the disappointment of the nation “on the chin”.
“These are the kids that will be household names in our cricket. From my side I’ll take it on the chin but for the players I think it’s important to understand that they are young kids who are learning the game and haven’t been exposed to such pressures before and it’s important that we support them in their growth,” Mahatlane said.
The Under-19s had a nightmare start to their home World Cup after a crushing seven wicket loss to Afghanistan.
But they bounced back convincingly in their next two games thrashing Canada by 150 runs and beating the United Arab Emirates by 23 runs in a rain affected match.
This meant they went into the quarter-finals after finishing second in their group, where they faced Bangladesh on Thursday.
They lost by 104 runs and after the first 10 overs never really looked to get close to the 262 set by the Young Tigers in the first innings.
The reason for this was spin.
The reason they lost so heavily to Afghanistan was again, their weakness against spin.
Mahatlane on spin woes
It’s not just spin, it’s quality spin from the sub-continent that usually has them in a tizz. Against Afghanistan and Bangladesh, they lost half their lineup to it.
Even in the World Cup they won in 2014, 13 of their 32 wickets were against spin.
“To be fair to the youngsters, they don’t face that kind of quality spin locally,” Mahatlane said of his charges.
“To expose them to that and to help them set game plans was something we worked hard on.”
This included some spin camps, facing sub-continent opposition and talking long and hard about how to play against the spinners. In the end, Mahatlane said that the game plan went out the window as the pressure picked up.
“[On Thursday], in particular, a lot of the stuff happened with cross bat where we worked hard on playing straight … It’s part of growth and if you are going to play international cricket, half the nations [bowl spin] and you are going to get your fair chance.”
Mahatlane emphasised that they did do a lot of things well but pressure and lack of consistency in facing spin was a challenge, not just for this team, but for South African cricket.
“We always talk about our batters, but I think we need to work hard on improving our quality of spin so that out batters get exposed to that kind of pressure.”
The quality spinners, Mahatlane said, bowl wicket to wicket, look to squeeze a batsman with pressure, bowl very few, if any, bad balls and force the players to make a mistake.
In South Africa, however, learning to play this kind of spin was not easy because they quality of spin is such that often a batsman will get one or two bad balls.
So how do we do it?
“The key is to give them [the quality spinners] game time and expose these youngsters and allow them to bowl overs and grow,” Mahatlane said, especially because we do produce one or two quality spinners from time to time he added.
“If we can get to a stage where we prepare good turning wickets and allow a lot of our young spinners to dominate in certain parts of the country, while never losing our strength of playing fast bowlers, then I think we are heading in the right direction,” Mahatlane said.
On the current youth system
Reflecting on the teams he has coached and the group of players he has worked with, Mahatlane said this group was just as good as any.
“If you reflect, the team that most probably did the worst at the [Under-19] World Cup has technically been one of the most successful in terms of playing first-class cricket.
“You think of the team in 2016 that ended up 11 in the world: Tony de Zorzi was the captain, he just scored a double 100 two weeks ago; Kyle Verreynne opened the batting, he’s in the Proteas squad; Lutho Sipamla opened the bowling, he’s in the Proteas squad; Wiaan Mulder [who also played in that World Cup] has played for the Proteas.”
Mahatlane believes that the pain and the growth those players took away from that world cup, South Africa’s joint lowest finish, helped them become the great cricketers they are now.
“I think these kids will do the same.”
For this unit, at least, they will have the chance to finish within the top five at best or eighth at worst.
Asked if South Africa was seeing a crisis of young players, “I think it’s exciting times,” Mahatlane said with verve.
“It’s exciting in terms of the exposure given to these youngsters. We’ve got a lot of quality young players that unfortunately don’t get exposed.”
Mahatlane said a lot of these players come from Cricket SA’s regional performance centres and hubs and to watch them play is exciting.
“Long may that grow.”
However, the problem, was sometimes after the Under-19 level, he said.
“The coaches further up are not as patient in helping these youngsters grow and are looking for immediate results.”
This needed to be looked at so that “we understand what developing a cricketer is versus wining”.
“Structurally, I think Cricket SA is in a very good place,” Mahatlane said, “and it’s up to us as individual coaches to make sure that we support that particular structure.
“The system is there, it’s a matter of us using it and using it smarter.”
Asked if the structures have the right people to head and lead them, Mahatlane answered: “What is the right person? For me, we need to reflect and ask the question, are the people that are there doing what they supposed to be doing? I think most of them are.
“Secondly, many a great coach comes from those regions. It’s just making sure that the guidelines and everything we do [as coaches] is for the betterment of the player rather than the results.”
On his future at Under-19 level
Mahatlane was coy when asked if he would still want to head up the Under-19 team saying that he really enjoys what he does, even though it has made him very grey, he added jokingly.
Mahatlane was appointed as Under-19 coach in 2014 after Ray Jennings was sacked after eight years in charge. He has coached the Under-19s to their first and only World Cup win.
Mahatlane has led South Africa to three World Cups with the team finishing 11th and fifth in the previous two.
“The greatest thing about our job is to watch people grow and watch young talent that might not have been exposed to hopefully represent the Proteas one day,” he said.
With his contract ending in April, Mahatlane said there would be a review after the World Cup “where the powers that be” would decide his fate.
“I really enjoy this space,” he said, “even though it could get repetitive, it doesn’t because each year you teach new guys and get to touch a lot more people than you normally would.”
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