Albie Morkel's coaching philosophy: Take the pressure off, not add to it

It's been more than a decade, but former South Africa allrounder Albie Morkel, who is now working as a specialist coaching consultant with the national side, still saw himself as a player, sort of.

"When I started my coaching career, I coached as a player. You want to make a difference on the field and you can't," he said at South Africa's pre-match press conference ahead of their final group fixture against UAE. "You have to accept that fact (that you're not on the field) and work that way. Playing is about being under pressure anyway. If you're a coach, you want to make a difference in the game all the time, and that doesn't help."

Once he worked through the desire to pad up or get to the top of his bowling mark, he realised that his new job is to do the things he wouldn't have done as a player, and to learn to repel pressure rather than absorb it. "It's about finding that middle ground where you try to help, where you take pressure off the players."

For now, that means doing less, even if it goes against the grain of Morkel's natural instinct.

"My philosophy is that once you're here and you start thinking about technical stuff, that's when you confuse players. It's more about how I can actually take the pressure off them and make them believe in themselves," he explained. "The players know what they're doing. If it's really serious technical stuff, they need to work on it, but not during tournaments."

That's why, for example, Morkel is not spending his time working on Dewald Brevis' obvious weakness against the short ball, nor is he concerned with his modest return of 50 runs in three innings so far.

"We feel that if we ask him to play a certain way, we'll take away the X-factor. He's going to break your heart at some stage, but he's also going to win you games. So the best way for us is just to let him be that guy," Morkel said.

As far as problems go, that's not a bad one for South Africa to have. The rest of their line-up is in good form and Brevis, at his first tournament, is the player they expect to serve them for many years to come. There is, as Morkel suggests, time outside of a major event to fix any issues - and no point dwelling on them when the stakes are as high as they are now.

The same applies to Kagiso Rabada, who has taken two wickets in three matches so far and whose most memorable moment was overstepping when Noor Ahmad hit him to cover in the final over of the Afghanistan match, which went to a double Super Over.

Is Rabada's form - given that he is far more experienced than Brevis - something to worry about?

"It's not a concern. I think if you look around T20 cricket, that can happen to any bowler at any stage, where the pressure just gets to you and you maybe have a day like that. But he's still our premier fast bowler and we're going to double down on him and back him all the way," Morkel said. "That's the only way to go now. If you get too tactical or technical with guys like that, who know what they're doing, you can confuse them. So for him, it's just accept that performance, move forward and be better next time."

And "next time," if you listen to Morkel, doesn't necessarily mean the UAE game. South Africa are already through to the Super Eight stage and could use the final fixture to give opportunities to the likes of Jason Smith, Kwena Maphaka and Anrich Nortje.

Then the World Cup really starts - and in a big way - when South Africa play India in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

"There will be more pressure in those games as you move towards the playoffs," Morkel said. "We've got a very experienced group who have been exposed to pressure, whether it's in the IPL or other leagues. International cricket is a little bit different, but these are guys who can handle that pressure. They actually thrive in circumstances where there's a bit more on the line, so I'm not too worried."

Morkel, who played in five T20 World Cups, came up against India at every event, including the inaugural edition, when T20 was still fairly new and players and boards alike were trying to work out how important the format would be in their portfolio. That has evolved massively. T20 now dominates the international calendar and has created opportunities for someone like Morkel to occupy a significant coaching role.

He moved into coaching in the Titans, CSK and JSK set-ups after he stopped playing in 2018, and has been involved with South Africa's T20 side under Shukri Conrad, who retains the same support staff across all formats. Morkel is seen as someone who could one day take over the main job, especially in T20s, and he has learned from the best.

Morkel works with Stephen Fleming at the Super Kings.

"He is one of the only coaches - maybe the only coach in the world - who has been at that franchise for 17 years, so he must be doing something right."

And Morkel hopes to do the same.