Two new Proteas coaches put Nkwe’s plans in the spotlight

Cricket SA’s (CSA’s) announcement of Rob Walter and Shukri Conrad as new coaches for the Proteas men’s team on Monday has placed the spotlight sharply on the organisation’s director of cricket, Enoch Nkwe.            

These are Nkwe’s appointments, his first calculated steps in reinvigorating and positioning the Proteas since taking over from Graeme Smith last June.

Conrad, who will oversee the Test side, and Walter, in charge of the two limited-overs teams, will be tasked with turning the Proteas into a team that can win the World Test Championship and must win the 2027 50-over World Cup in SA. 

Until Monday, Nkwe had worked with what he had inherited: Mark Boucher as national coach, Temba Bavuma and Dean Elgar as captains, Victor Mpitsang as the national selection convener, and CSA’s high performance management team. In the case of the latter, “batting lead” Neil McKenzie resigned recently while bowling lead and high performance manager Vincent Barnes will retire next month, meaning Nkwe must direct changes there too.

It was on Nkwe’s recommendation that the coaching roles be split for the first time on a formal basis by CSA. The Proteas play less Test cricket in the next four years, while there is an extended white ball schedule, with one ICC tournament on the calendar every year until 2031.

Conrad and Walter are experienced coaches. Conrad worked locally with the Lions and Cape Cobras, winning titles with both, and now oversees the SA under-19 side. Walter, who won three titles with the Titans, has worked in New Zealand with Otago from 2016 and recently with the Central Districts, which is based in Hamilton, and guided the New Zealand A team in India last year.

While the 2027 World Cup is the main goal for Walter, he also needs to ensure the Proteas qualify for this year’s tournament, though Nkwe stressed Walter would not be judged on it. 

Nkwe explained that for him and the coaches to achieve the targets set by CSA would require careful management of a rapidly changing landscape in the sport, more focused planning of the national team’s transition, and also widening the pool of players available for selection. 

Though they are working in different formats, he said it was notable that Walter and Conrad shared the same philosophy for the team. “What we picked up is that there is going to be good synergy,” Nkwe said. 

“What was important for us was how they could work together and are they in agreement on the playing philosophy. We don’t want a situation where the red ball has a completely different philosophy to the white ball.”

While the pace of the Proteas transition has been lethargic — something Nkwe has previously blamed on the Covid-19 pandemic — that process will be accelerated under Conrad and Walter.

The most notable aspect will be the respective captains, Bavuma and Elgar. Both have been under pressure in the past 12 months and increasingly their positions as captains are being questioned. 

“I still need to hear from the coaches on the leadership,” said Nkwe. “It won’t be a quick process.

“The decision we make for the next two years, we must commit 100% to it and then if the captains feel they can contribute strongly for the next two years and help with the transition phase, then we commit to that. We will be having some interesting conversations in the next month, so that all together we build that stability.

“We don’t want a situation where it is chop and change. The reality is that the two captains won’t captain over the next five years — we need to also identify who will be the next two captains and then how much time do we give them and how do we blood them in.

“Those are some of the hard conversations we will be having over the next month so everything is clear about our plan moving forward,” he said.