Jennings: some players 'need a kick up the backside'

Ray Jennings: There isn't enough respect in the SA team © Touchline

Last Friday's appointment of Ray Jennings as South Africa's new coach caused a few raised eyebrows. Jennings has a reputation for blunt talking, and his first interview since the announcement did not disappoint.

He told reporters that he was not going to be a touchy-feely coach and that if his players needed "a good kick up the backside" then that's what they will get.

Jennings forged a reputation as a hard man both as a player - he was South Africa's leading wicketkeeper for more than a decade during the era of isolation - and a coach. In the past he has made bowlers run laps of the field for bowling no-balls, and on a recent A-team tour of Zimbabwe, he moved the fridge out of the changing room and made his players drink warm fluids.

"If the players expect soft drinks, I will make sure there are none," he told the South African newspaper Rapport. "They will go to a tap and get on their knees and drink water until they realise that it is an honour to play for South Africa."

Jennings has made it clear that he feels South Africa are at rock bottom. "Either the players work with me, or I leave," he explained. "The UCB put its faith in me to jack up the team. In order to do so, five things must be re-introduced: passion, respect, image, discipline and fun. These five things are inseparable. One will never have discipline if people don't respect you. If the players are not honest with you and don't respect you, there won't be discipline There isn't enough respect in the SA team."

There are fears that this confrontational, controlling style might backfire, both with the players and opposition.

"Cricket seems to be moving more towards the spirit of the game, and Jennings's appointment is almost swimming against the tide of playing cricket according to the spirit of the game," commented Ray White, a former president of the South African board. "I wonder how popular he will make the team while he is in charge."

But Jennings appears to have little time for any niceties such as popularity. "I know there are players in the team who are in a comfort zone and might feel the game owes them something," he added. "We can't have one coach after the other. The players' attitude will have to change."

The relationship he has with some of the senior players - Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis spring to mind - will be worth watching. "I don't think he is going to behave like a school teacher," Boucher told Wisden Cricinfo. "I think he will understand that he is dealing with professionals who have been around for a while, and he will treat them with the respect they deserve."

That might be wishful thinking on his part.