Domingo offers helping hand

Pretoria - The Cricket South Africa (CSA) Level IV coaching course candidates were given insight into the coaching philosophy at National level during their course at the CSA Centre of Excellence in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Proteas coach, Russell Domingo, and his assistant, Adrian Birrell, shared information in an effort to "create synergy" between the Proteas coaching structure and set-ups below.

Domingo, a product of the CSA coaching programme, said information-sharing was vital.

"It's important to chat informally to some of the franchise and semi-pro coaches about some of the players in the pipeline whom they see as prospective national players in the future," said Domingo.

"It's always good to share ideas, so there's been a lot of learning for me and for them. I think this will go a long way in making sure that players making the step up to international level do so with some sort of coaching consistency."

Domingo said he received his certificate for the course 10 years ago.

"Things these days are a lot more process-driven rather than result-driven so there is a lot more understanding of that principle."

CSA coaching manager, Anton Ferreira, felt inspired by the interaction being created between the national, franchise and semi-professional coaching structures.

"This opportunity will have given our current batch of Level IV candidates an idea of what is happening at the National coaching set-up and what the philosophies and coaching styles entail," said Ferreira.

"Some of the topics that Russell touched on include analysing the opposition, preparing for various formats, and how to deal with junior and senior players coming into the system."

The course was introduced in 1997 and is currently hosting its fifth edition of coaches.

There are six ex-Protea players in the current group, a quality Ferreira feels will add to the retention of information and experience to pass on to the next generation of cricketers.

"This course was driven by a need in the country to prepare coaches that are working at a professional level with the ambition of coaching in the domestic first-class or national teams.

"We have tried to design a programme that helps the coaches to prepare to do the job at those particular levels."