Cape Town: Former South Africa all-rounder Lance Klusener, who will be the assistant batting coach for upcoming India tour, said that for bringing back the passion and intensity in players to play for the country is half the battle for the Proteas' reform.
South Africa had a disastrous World Cup campaign as they finished on the seventh position out of 10 teams in the Competition.
SA will be facing India for a three-match T20I series and the same number of test matches. However, Klusener will only be mentoring the team for the T20I series only.
Lance Klusener will be the assistant batting coach for upcoming India tour Klusener said, "From the outside and what I've seen, I just don't necessarily see that passion to play for South Africa anymore. That's something that the coaches will need to tackle and have a look at."He further added," That's just what it looked like. I haven't been in the system and I'm sure the guys were trying, but it just didn't look like it should. I think finding that passion of playing for your country again is half the battle. There is no other option, we have to get things right."On the retirement of big players such as AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn Klusener opined, "You don't just replace a Faf (Du Plessis), Dale Steyn, Hashim Amla or AB de Villiers.it takes years to replace those guys. Those quality players leave huge gaps, so it is a challenge. Those players have also kept other players out of the team and some of those players are now on Kolpaks and playing overseas so we don't have that experience to draw on."The former all-rounder also highlighted some key points on the current condition of the South African cricket team, he said, "If you take where South African cricket is now, it will take a long time. It's going to need some patience and understanding from a lot of people, but if there's some consistency with the right people in the right places then we've got half a chance."South Africa will face India for the first T20I match on September 15.
