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Kirsten not keen on Proteas

Eduan Roos

Cape Town – Neither Gary Kirsten nor Stephen Fleming will be the next Proteas coach.

Sport24 has reliably learnt during the past week that neither applied to take over from Corrie van Zyl after the South Africans' failed Cricket World Cup campaign.

Van Zyl, who took over from Mickey Arthur at the beginning of last year, has stepped down from the role and will return to his job as head coach of the High Performance Centre in Pretoria.

Although Kirsten and Fleming were earlier regarded as two of the favourites for the job - and Cricket South Africa were keen on both - neither of them were apparently interested.

Kirsten, who played for the Proteas in 101 Tests and 185 one-day matches, has attained great successes with the Indian team since he took over from Australian Greg Chappell four years ago.

Under him, India reached the No 1 spot in the International Cricket Board's Test rankings and won the recent Cricket World Cup.

The World Cup final was Kirsten's last match at the helm of India, with the 43-year-old coach and his family returning to Cape Town this month.

Fleming, one of the leading captains in the game's history, played 111 Tests and 280 one-day matches for New Zealand.

He retired in 2008 and coached the Chennai Super Kings to the both the Indian Premier League and ICC Champions League titles in 2010.

Meanwhile, it would appear that former Pakistan coach and current Cape Cobras coach Richard Pybus is the favourite for the post.

Gerald Majola, executive head of CSA, told Sport24 that a short list of six candidates would be made known in the following week.

"We will begin with interviews shortly after the World Cup and hope to make the appointment by June," confirmed Majola.

The names of Lions coach Dave Nosworthy and current Proteas assistant coach, Vincent Barnes, are apparently also on the list.
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