'We have the talent and the drive'

Eric Simons accepts the deficiencies South Africa face at the moment: inconsistent middle-order batting, no matchwinning spinner and no one with the pace to demolish the opposition. But still he believes that South Africa are the second-best side in the world of cricket. In an exclusive with Wisden Cricinfo, the South African coach tells Nagraj Gollapudi why he feels that way.

Prior to the England series - and after the World Cup debacle - South Africa were in a slump. How difficult was it to fight the odds and what was your immediate priority?
I don't think we were in such a deep slump, but yes, the World Cup was a big disappointment. The biggest challenge then was to get guys going and have them play to their potential. So we sat down as a group and focused on what one has achieved. Obviously as a team you believe that you are the best, and you want to win, but then there are times when a player loses focus. That may because he has played too much cricket or is going through a bad phase. So we refocused on each individual and thought for long about what it really means to be the best. We were a lot more specific about the course that we were going to take on the read to achieve the ultimate goal.

Do you think you have been successful in working on your plan?
Things have not been going right for us, and we have had no major success. I am still disappointed with South Africa's recent performances where we had been in winning situations and on the brink of winning the series but have faltered at the last moment.

This team has found the self-belief, which was not there when you had taken over in 2002. Who and what are the catalysts behind this change?
The whole World Cup thing was revolved a lot around the massive expectations from the team, and we spoke a lot about that. I don't think it is any coincidence that no team has won the World Cup in its own country, and being in the glare of the home public makes it more difficult, and it didn't help our cause that we fared badly during the event. But that debacle helped us to work hard on ourselves and achieve things which were not seen in the past. Some of the guys who were under-performing, not only in terms of performance but also in terms of professionalism, have realized the importance of performing at all levels. The attitude now is more professional towards training, development skills and teaching skills. In the past a few guys were complacent about what they had achieved and what they had done and wanted control over things, but that is the thing of the past now.

In Graeme Smith South Africa have a young and tough, but slightly inexperienced, captain. What is your role in helping him sort things out and is it difficult?
I have been very lucky to be working with Graeme, as I've known him from a young age when I was his coach at Western Province, and we have had a good relationship. We have similar principles and attitude towards what we have achieved and what we want. We sit and discuss various things and work something out. My role for him - mentor will be too strong a word to use - is being a good coach. As a young guy what is going to bide him is the willingness to learn - he knows he has lot to learn - ask questions, take advice. He can always approach me, the manager or a senior player like Shaun Pollock, who is always encouraging and giving advice. In short we are there to give direction to Graeme and help him lead South Africa up the table.

He [Graeme] brings so much intensity into his captaincy that one fears for him?
What you see of Graeme on the field is what he is really like off it as well. He is very hard on himself, sets high standards and carries that on to his players. That's good and that's important. He knows when is the right time to be hard on his players and when is the right moment to encourage them. Two of his greatest strengths that have impressed me are his incredible self-belief and his ability to make other people believe in themselves. When he is hard on others, he is also being hard on himself, and that earns him the respect of his team-mates

South Africa have been inconsistent in their performances - during the tour of England, and now, in Pakistan. Don't you think that there are a few more loose ends that need to be stitched, before one can be ruthless?
We definitely have got loose ends and, as a coach, I am concerned about them. One of the things we are doing is being honest with ourselves, beginning with me. We want to confront the issues rather than run away from them.

The main concern is out batting in the middle. The middle-order batting in the both forms of game has to be more solid. Obviously Gary [Kirsten] has come back in the longer version and he is a top performer, mentally solid, but he is nearing the end of his career. Jacques Rudolph and Boeta Dippenaar are young and are the frontrunners to claim his spot and I would really like these youngsters to put up their hands and make that spot their own. Then we have Mark Boucher and Shaun Pollock who are solid anchors and strengthen our batting line-up.

The other is our fast bowling, where we have Shaun Pollock, who bowls consistently season after season on all tracks in any country, but has lost the venom. Makhaya Ntini is successful in terms of wickets but when the pitch doesn't suit him he finds it difficult to adjust. Then we don't have an extra seamer who can identify the cracks in the opposition. We bowl well when the wicket suits us and try and adjust when it doesn't, and, that is what we saw, more or less, in the recently concluded series against Pakistan.

Your batting seems to be top-heavy unlike the rich talent you had a few years back when an allrounder like Pat Symcox was the last man.
Those things come and go. We still have a workable allrounder in Shaun Pollock, who bats at number eight. And one of the strengths of South African cricket has been it has brought many quality allrounders to the game. So there is depth to our batting. Number nine has to be your best bowler and if he can just hold on to one end helping the other batsman to rotate the score I am happy.

Fast bowling: there's no one apart form Pollock who looks menacing. Who are the people who are waiting in the wings?
We don't have a genuine fast bowler at the moment. Makhaya's average speed is 138-140 kph at the end of the day, but there's no one who can bowl genuinely fast like Shoaib [Akhtar] whose spell turned the first Test in their favour in Lahore in this series. To be honest there is no one with that kind of pace out there. Mfuenko Ngam bowled 140-plus speeds but its unfortunate that he is in rehab. He is taking a long time to recover, it may be due to his inherent problems with weak bone structure.

Spin bowling is another area of major concern. Paul Adams is the lone spinner and he, too, is not a matchwinner?
We have not had matchwinning spinners like other countries possess. Most of blame lies in the way the South African domestic game is played, where fast bowlers are given the maximum advantage. The game is not played in a manner which nurtures the development of spinners, as the wickets are normally bouncy, and the spinners don't do well on them. When we come to a country like Pakistan and are subjected to a spin bowler - who is a club-level bowler - we see the whole range of different deliveries, alternatives and variations he has developed which we can't grasp. We need to be more proactive and unconservative if we have to see the South African spinner play a much bigger role in the game.

Do you believe South Africa are still the second-best team in the world?
Yes. With the series between various countries becoming unpredictable the margin of difference between their levels has shrunk, but South Africa still have the talent and the drive to be at the top.

Nagraj Gollapudi is sub editor of Wisden Asia Cricket magazine.