Cape Town - The second of a two-part Q&A by Sport24 chief writer Rob Houwing with Craig Matthews, who played 18 Tests and 56 ODIs for South Africa and was recently relieved of his position as a national selector in a clear-out of the whole panel.

Click HERE to read Part 1

To what extent will the tumult of the last two weeks impact on the Proteas in India?
I don’t believe it will, really. They’re professional and have a very solid core of senior players. Obviously it will play on them a little bit, and much will depend on how they start the Test series. If they get off to a pretty good start, then all should be well, but if they get behind the black ball a bit, and (Virender) Sehwag goes mad with the bat, swinging from the hip early in the first Test, then you start thinking “how do we claw back into this?” and all the problems of the last while start entering minds again. The first couple of sessions of the first day (at Nagpur) could well provide some strong pointers. Look, if Mickey Arthur was still there and the selectors too, it’s still a tough tour to go and win! But the captain is still in place and Graeme (Smith) is a strong guy. I suppose as ex-selectors we almost can’t lose: if we win the team was picked by us, if we lose then people might say “see what happens when you change the coach?”

What needs to click into place especially well for South Africa to prevail in the Tests?
I think Harry (Paul Harris) needs to bowl a lot better than he did (against England). He’s been a bit below his own game. He’s an interesting one: he gets picked mostly as the “holding” bowler and then when he doesn’t get five-for on the final day everyone says “drop the oke”. But if you’re honest about it he hasn’t even given you the holding role recently. England consciously targeted him; they went at him hard. They generally play spin well and they also went after our spinners at one-day level this summer … Roelof (van der Merwe) and company took some pain. So Paul will need to bowl tidily in India. You will also not want him to come on to bowl without our strike bowlers having nicked a wicket or two first. From a batting point of view we should be fine. I still don’t see Ashwell (Prince) as a long-term solution at the top of the order, but I think in India he will still be employed there and quite possibly do well.

Any chance of an “accidental greentop” in our favour as happened in Ahmedabad in 2008?
I wouldn’t think so. We got away with it once and I think the guys will know they’ll be lucky if they experience that again. We’re going to have to grind it out, I suspect. It’s not as though India have a quick-bowling attack that’s going to scare us too much. Ishant Sharma’s OK but he hasn’t been great in the last year, although Zaheer’s Khan’s looked good in the last while. There’s no (Javagal) Srinath-type these days, and Sreesanth’s injured.

What are your thoughts on South Africa not really kicking on after their rich successes in Australia last season?
For one thing, I guess you’ve got to be a lot closer to the actual team than I am to know exactly what’s gone on there. But I also believe we have some great players, all around the park. I’m not convinced we’re that strong in “middle management” within the side. And that department’s got to be really strong if you’re to dominate the world. I’m one of those who said quite strongly: “we need to come up with a vice-captain who plays in all forms of the game”. We need a new group of leadership just below Graeme; he can’t have it all on his shoulders. In Australia the Ponting-Clarke dynamic is starting to grow and you’ve got Hussey there, a strong character, as well. Maybe they don’t have it so much among the bowling, because Mitchell Johnson’s perhaps not that sort of guy -- not a Warne or McGrath in that area. I’m not having a pop at our players … some players are suited to (team responsibility) and some just aren’t. But I also don’t see any country especially dominating the world arena; that’s another factor. There are several teams of similar strength, unlike a couple of years ago when the Aussies were phenomenal and reigned supreme. Look how even Pakistan should have won the second Test match in Australia recently …

Were you surprised by Mickey Arthur’s departure?
Ja, it was a big shock. Look, there had been rumblings, I’d been hearing some talk, plus he was relatively close to the end of his contract anyway. The World Cup’s only a year away and he’d have been done after that anyway. There’s clearly more to it than “I’d had enough”. And certainly more than “Graeme and I are gatvol of each other” – I don’t believe that was such a major contributor to his going. Bear in mind that when CSA had that meeting with Mickey after the England series they had sold the line that it was “just a normal stock-take”. People said the timing’s been bad … but when is the timing ever good?

Who would you advocate for the replacement job, long-term?
I’ve no idea! I know Kepler’s name has been bandied around, and there have been rumours he’s trying to get out of his SuperSport contract. I’ve got a lot of respect for his thoughts and cricketing nous, yet it also takes more than that to be a good coach. If there’s any insistence that it be a coach of colour then you’re looking at Shukri Conrad and Russell Domingo from the (franchises). He’s only just started out in coaching, but I’ve heard some really good reports about Geoffrey Toyana as an assistant and academy coach at Northerns. But that would obviously be a lot, lot further down the road. I’m a firm believer that, with the various intricacies we have, a South African needs to coach South Africa. I don’t say that about any other country.

What about your old team-mate Gary Kirsten?
 I think it would be a problem trying to buy him out of India. And I think it would be wisest of him to say “no” under present circumstances anyway. I know he has aspirations and, for family reasons, with his children’s schooling and so on, he will want to come back in a year or so. I felt that the timing for him to (show interest) would have been perfect if Mickey had gone through to the World Cup. As things stand they possibly aren’t working out perfectly for Gary …

Graeme Smith “outlasting” several coaches: too powerful, or simply a well-entrenched skipper?
I don’t think he’s too powerful, no. He’s a big personality in South African cricket and a great asset. At the end of the day he doesn’t make those decisions (over coaches). The Board does. He’s not consciously running around trying to get rid of coaches. The other issue is that there’s nobody else for national captain: he’s miles ahead. That’s another reason I’ve been advocating more serious action on the vice-captaincy. We’ve been blessed by Graeme, comfortably justifying his place in all forms of the international game. He’s a dynamic guy who has got a lot better in terms of his handling of press and public, that sort of thing. Having said all that, I think the time is not too far away when he wants to just be a batsman, not leader as well. He started very young. But there isn’t a proper succession plan: who is the next captain? Who is the next Steyn? Next Harris? We have no clear idea, I think.