Arthur quitting: win-win?
The immediacy of Arthur’s resignation – it had not yet come from the horse’s mouth as this was penned – caught me off-guard, as it would have most
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
The immediacy of Arthur’s resignation – it had not yet come from the horse’s mouth as this was penned – caught me off-guard, as it would have most. His actually doing it, in the aftermath of South Africa’s rather shaky, split-personality home summer? Not quite so much, writes Rob Houwing on Sport24.
Coaching or captaining this country, with the unique factors and needs that accompany it, is a particularly exhausting responsibility, and this against a universal backdrop which suggests more and more that coaches in professional sport have definite “shelf-lives” anyway.
Speaking of captaincy, if it is true that Arthur’s relationship with Graeme Smith had “deteriorated irreparably”, it is remarkable in some ways how the latter continues to prosper in his portfolio – he has now outlasted several coaches, including the indelicate taskmaster Jennings and affable “diplomats” in Arthur and Eric Simons.
On Sport24, Houwing also ponders who will succeed Arthur as South Africa coach. Corrie van Zyl? Gary Kirsten? Duncan Fletcher? Kepler Wessels?
Wessels was once not shy to castigate Smith’s team for talking a good game, rather than delivering it, although spats have lessened parallel to the Proteas learning to break the tape more routinely, especially at Test level.
And just maybe the sort of challenge Wessels would pose is what Smith needs, whether he realises it or not, at this juncture. The latter has been at his post for a long time, and there must be the risk of leadership “fatigue” or some degree of apathy and ambivalence setting in.
Barend Prins believes that Arthur’s exit offers a good chance to get some new blood into the set-up. Writing in sport.iafrica.com, he believes that Allan Donald, if he can be conviced to take up the role, is the best man to don the role of bowling coach.
Having arguably this country's greatest ever bowler involved closely with speedsters Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel can only be a good thing, but just imagine how much of an influence he can have on the current 'golden boy' of South African cricket, Wayne Parnell. Donald seems to have become something of an expert in the biomechanics of fast bowling since hanging up his boots as well.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo