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Durban - Cricket South Africa may have announced transformation targets for the national team but coach Russell Domingo said that he has not received any instructions in that regard ahead of the two-Test series against New Zealand.
CSA president and chairperson of the Board, Chris Nenzani, recently said: “In the past we had never set targets in our national teams but with changing circumstances we feel it is essential to move with the times.”
However, Nenzani went on to add that that precise targets had yet to be agreed on and that relevant committees needed to determine what is realistic and sustainable.
Domingo, speaking in Durban as the Proteas’ squad gathered ahead of the first test against New Zealand starting on August 19, said that nothing official had been conveyed to him and that the suggestion that the likes of fast bowler Kagiso Rabada and batsmen Hashim Amla and JP Duminy were picked on the basis of their skin colour was laughable.
“There has been nothing officially recommended to me at the moment,” Domingo told a handful of journalists on Sunday.
“We will continue to do what we’ve always done and that is pick our best eleven players. We are fortunate that it hasn’t been an issue for this particular team. If somebody said to me that Rabada is playing because he is black I would tell him to jump into the Indian Ocean. He’s a world-class player. If somebody told me that Amla or Duminy are picked because of the colour of their skin I’d tell them that they are smoking something.
“They have proved themselves at domestic cricket and international cricket so it’s not something that has been instructed to me as yet so we are just going on as business as usual,” he added.
New Zealand have been winning a lot of plaudits for their recent play and are coming off a comfortable two-Test series win away against Zimbabwe but Domingo said that he was not concerned by the suggestion that South Africa would be undercooked heading into the series.
The Proteas last played a Test eight months ago, against England while the majority of the rest of their season was taken up by limited-overs cricket.
“There is no feeling from me that we are undercooked. We haven’t played this format in eight months but our players have played a lot of cricket, albeit in different formats so I don’t have the sense that we are undercooked.
“I think India will play something like 15 Tests at home this summer. I think we play 11 Tests, six of them away from home this summer. We don’t play enough Tests, it is the pinnacle. It is the format that we probably look forward to the most because of all the history that is associated with it. The guys are all really hungry to put in some good Test performances,” he explained.
Domingo also said that former South Africa wicketkeeper would join up with the squad for three days ahead of the first Test so that the squad could tap into some of Boucher’s knowledge and experience.
Read the story on SuperSport.com
