Kirsten’s template ignored

Few doubt the first sentence. But few since Kirsten have done what it takes to ensure the second.

Following a tremendously successful stint as coach of the Indian team,a stint that ended with a World Cup trophy in April 2011,Gary Kirsten took over the reins of his home side a couple of months later. In the 38 months that he bossed over South Africa,Kirsten employed a strategy that he had formulated and perfected during his India days.

It went something like this:

Unburden the best (and usually the oldest) batsman in the side from his short-format cricket responsibilities. Watch his Test average soar for this period. Then bring him back,refreshed and confident,for the World Cup.

When in-charge of the Indian dressing room,Kirstens simple yet gutsy thought worked like a charm.When Sachin Tendulkar scored one-day crickets first double century (incidentally,against SA),he was two months shy of his 37th birthday and India were a year away from hosting the quadrennial. Relieved from his ODI duties for the rest of 2010,he went on to record his best Test calendar page seven centuries (including two doubles) and 1562 runs.

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So when the 2011 World Cup came about,all Tendulkar had to do was shrug off the cotton wool,score two hundreds in the group stages,hit an 85 in the semi-final and cradle a long desired trophy in the final. Kirsten,once part of long suffering SA Cup squads,had broken his World Cup jinx as well that night. But for his country to do the same,he perhaps realised then,the Tendulkar template had to be repeated with South Africas finest Jacques Henry Kallis.

It had the desired effect. Between June 2011 and August 2013 (Kirstens reign),Kallis played a total of seven ODIs,most of them in the first year. In 2012,with his green jersey resting among mothballs,Kalliss Test run went like this 224,0,113,6,182*,19,27,3,31,147,49,58,46,2,37.

But in 2013 came a couple of setbacks form and Kirstens retirement. The second,unfortunately,was irreversible. With no Kirsten to reassure them,hushed voices within and outside the Proteas system rose,questioning why Kallis deserved special treatment when the one-day side languished in the mid-table. So a tired Kallis returned,playing (and promptly failing in) more one-dayers in the last couple of months than he did in all of 2012.

At 38,it was always going to be difficult to toggle between formats. So a few days after he was made to wear pink,Kallis blushed out of Test cricket,with this statement: I still have a lot of hunger to push South Africa to that World Cup in 2015. If I am fit and performing.

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Few doubt the first sentence. But few since Kirsten have done what it takes to ensure the second.

(Aditya is a principal correspondent,based in New Delhi)

aditya.iyer@expressindia.com