SA turn to Langeveldt knowhow

Like sleeveless vests, baseball caps and sneakers, T20 was once considered a young man's thing. But Shane Warne, Brad Hogg and, more recently, Jacques Kallis have torched that theory, which is why the announcement that 40-year-old Charl Langeveldt was joining up with South Africa's T20 outfit was met with barely a tilt of the eyebrow, until it became obvious he would not actually be playing.

Credited with being key to the development of, among others, Beuran Hendricks at the Cobras, Langeveldt is starting a second career in cricket as a coach. It's no coincidence his involvement with the national team comes with the World Cup little more than a month away and South Africa still searching for a death bowler.

Langeveldt was known for his ability to bowl yorkers at the end of an innings - a skill which was best on display at the 2007 World Cup when his three wickets in five balls stopped a Sri Lanka surge. That particular skill has proved elusive for South Africa's seamers, as evidenced on the trip to Australia late last year, and they are looking to Langeveldt, not existing bowling coach Allan Donald whose contract expires after the World Cup, to help them find it.

"He has been seen as a great death bowler so it's an opportunity for us to pick his brain," Faf du Plessis, South Africa's T20 captain, said. "We have got a reputation of bringing guys in and credit to Russell [Domingo] for that. He is not an ego coach that thinks he knows everything. He likes to get in help."

The person Langeveldt will likely work closest with is Kyle Abbott, who has been identified as South Africa's final-over hangman and is the only one of the specialist seamer in the T20 squad. "Kyle is a fantastic yorker bowler, he is probably the best at that," du Plessis said. Wayne Parnell may also benefit from Langeveldt's experience but du Plessis hopes the rest will find other ways of restricting runs.

"In South African conditions, sometimes your best ball to bowl when a guy is putting you under pressure is not necessarily a yorker because if you get it wrong it goes for six but if you bowl a hard length or a bouncer, especially at the West Indian players, that is probably the best ball," he said. "Guys like Kagiso Rabada or Marchant de Lange are quite aggressive so they should use that. It's about your strength as a bowler and what you are best at bowling when you are under pressure."

But that is likely the only aspect of World Cup planning South Africa can do during the T20 series. Their senior players are all being rested and with both JP Duminy and Quinton de Kock injured, the matches are an audition for some new talent and a way to relook at some of the older faces.

"You can use T20 to prepare for the tournament if you have the same personnel. With us, it's difficult to do that because the core of the team will change," du Plessis said. "This is more about guys getting an opportunity to play international cricket because if something is going to happen and we need extra players for the World Cup squad, it will come from the guys that are here."

The one player that applies directly to is Morne van Wyk. The wicketkeeper-opening batsman is on standby in case de Kock does not recover in time for the World Cup. He last played for South at the 2011 tournament and will use this series to reintroduce himself to the biggest stage.

"Morne is very experienced," du Plessis said. "He is a good captain at the Dolphins and the more leaders you have in your group, the better. From a playing point of view, if he gets runs, he looks like the guy that may come in if we need him. Morne hasn't played for us for a while so it's also nice for him to see how the set-up has changed. One of the first things he said is that this is a very happy team so we take a lot of joy from that."

But du Plessis hopes this is the last time the shortest format will be used for a bit of a laugh and an experiment for ODIs. Although he understands that the "priority is the 50-over World Cup" at the moment, he expects it will shift by the next time South Africa play the shortest format mid-year against Bangladesh.

"After the 50-over World Cup, I will be asking that we play out best XI in this format because if you want to compete at a World T20, you need to play your best XI to try and get up those rankings," he said. "This is the toughest format to pull the guys in together because it's such a short time so we have to make the most of it."