SA's new support staff set to begin season

The first few letters of the latest chapter in Gary Kirsten's coaching career will be written on Monday when the former India coach officially starts work in his home country, South Africa. Kirsten's contract, and that of his assistant Russell Domingo, comes in to effect on August 1, but they will have a gentle easing in to their new jobs.

The national team, who are in the middle of a seven-month break from the game, will only convene in four weeks' time, effectively giving Kirsten more time to devise strategies. "We will have a camp towards the end of August where we will be workshopping ideas for the new season," Allan Donald, South Africa bowling coach told ESPNCricinfo. "There will probably be no cricket played in that time, just a lot of planning."

Donald has not had the same break as Kirsten and Domingo have, and started work a month ago, when he went with the A-team to Zimbabwe. Donald travelled as the assistant to his predecessor Vincent Barnes, who now works as High Performance coach, with a specific view to looking at the next generation of bowlers in the country.

The short ODI tour came at an awkward time, in the middle of the South African winter, and many of the players had to shake off the cobwebs before getting back into the groove. Donald was concerned that the team only managed to bowl out their opposition once in five matches. "We restricted sides, but we could not bowl teams out and we never really threatened," he said. "Everyone was a bit underdone. Australia A spent three weeks together before then, we only had three days, but I fully expect the structures to change now that we have Vinnie and Corrie [van Zyl] at the High Performance Centre."

While Kirsten and Domingo's views on the way forward for South African cricket will be known over the next few weeks, Donald has already outlined his mission. "We need to find a second wave of bowlers to Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. That will be vital. Those two need to be challenged because that will make them even more potent," he said. He identified left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell as one of the bowlers who will form a crucial part of the team's future plans. "He needs to make an impact and stake a Test claim."

Donald has also been working with the bowlers at his home franchise, the Knights, in Bloemfontein and will soon start "going to the other franchises to talk to the bowlers there". He has been in regular telephonic and email communication with Kirsten, working on compiling reports on some of players who are on the fringes of the national side.

Domingo, who is the only one of the three to have coached in the franchise set up, has been working on similar dossiers. "I've communicated with Gary about some ideas I've got for players around the country," he said. "I've also been in close touch with Vinnie Barnes, and have been following how the players have been doing in the A-side and on the [English] county circuit."

In between compiling the database of players that Kirsten will scrutinise during the course of the next month, Domingo has spent the winter "taking the kids to school and fetching them and fishing a lot." He will still be able to do that until the end of August, because only then does the real preparation for the future begin. South Africa's season kicks off with a Twenty20 on October 13 against Australia in Cape Town.