G Hawthorne: Cook, Ontong go one-on-one in effort to rejuvenate Vaal

3rd September 1997

Cook, Ontong go one-on-one in effort to rejuvenate Vaal.

By Guy Hawthorne

After a drastic revision of the coaching structure at the province, convenor of selectors David van der Knaap believes it's a case of now or never for Transvaal this season.

The traditional post of coach has been done away with and instead specialists have been appointed to deliver one-on-one tuition to the players.

"With the set-up we have now, I will be very surprised if don't at least reach one semi-final this season. Things are now in place and if we don't do it this season, we never will," said van der Knaap.

"We now have Jimmy Cook to handle the batting coaching and Rodney Ontong to look after the bowlers.

"Both of these guys are well qualified to coach in their respective fields and I will be very surprised if we don't see a marked difference in individual performances this season.

"At the end of the day, the better the players perfomr the better the team will do."

Van der Knaap says the specialist coaches have been instructed to do whatever is necessary to iron out flaws in player's techniques.

"If a bowler or a batsman is struggling then there is no reason why the relevant coach shouldn't take them for 3 or even 4 oneon-one sessions in a day," said van der Knaap.

"That kind of intensive coachins, where the focus will be on a particular area of weakness, if far better than a haphazard net session,

"In the old days the number 11 batsman in the side derived very little benefit from a conventional net session.

"No one was bothered with how he batted in the nets because he was always regarded primarily as a bowler.

"Now a guy like Wayne Kidwell (one of Transvaal's front line bowlers last season) will only improve as a batsman through individual coaching from Jimmy."

While van der Knaap expects the new format to bear fruit throughout the province, he feels a single success would justify the implementation of the scheme.

"If, say, Jimmy takes a player like Neil McKenzie and turns him into an international, then he will have done his job."

Source:: The Star