There is no secret weapon or silver bullet capable of helping any team win a World Cup which involves playing eleven games over the course of approximately six weeks, and nobody knows that as well as J-P Duminy who is now part of the Proteas coaching staff after a 199-match playing ODI career spanning three World Cup campaigns.
Head coach Rob Walter goes back a long way with Duminy and, while his technical knowledge and skills are highly regarded, it is what former captain Faf du Plessis calls the ‘soft skills’ of the game at which Duminy really excels. Du Plessis readily admits that the man he played with and against as a teenager grew into his closest confidant as leader of the national team.
Duminy spoke on Friday about the winter camps the Proteas have had at which various speakers had provided reminders “…of the power and impact you have as players, and what a great privilege it is to do what we do.”
But the camps are over now and the international season finally gets underway next way next Wednesday with the first of three T20 Internationals at Kingsmead followed by a five-match ODI series against Australia.
“There is excitement and a willingness to see the work that we have put in over the last couple of months against one of the best teams in the world. It’s been close to five months since we last played a game together so we don’t want to be having to catch-up, we want to throw the first punch, if I can put it that way,” said Duminy, aware of the incongruity of his fighting metaphor.
“You never want to take anything away from a series, but there is a bigger goal that we are working towards. That’s not shifting away from the importance of results, it’s just really focussing on the importance of process, and in particular our process, our partnerships and our roles within the team,” Duminy said. “Now we get to test all of that under pressure, it’s about implementing our game plans.”
Both teams are resting some big-name players from the T20s – the hosts even more than the visitors – with more emphasis being placed on the ODIs, but that didn’t mean the T20 players shouldn’t also be keeping an eye on the future.
“It’s about confidence and momentum but, having said that, we should have one eye on the next T20 World Cup which is also less than a year away. There is always a bigger picture in mind,” Duminy said.
As for his coaching career, which as advanced at a remarkable rate since his retirement after the 2019 World Cup, it isn’t what he planned but he “couldn’t be happier.”
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. If you’d asked me ten years ago whether I would be coaching now, the answer would have been a definite ‘no.’ There’s always things you miss when you retire from the game, but the thing which has always been a driver for me is purpose. That always speaks into how you influence other people.
“Coaching speaks volumes on that. Whatever role I have had in coaching I have found great fulfilment, so I have absolutely loved it. I have tried my best to connect with the guys and I’ve loved the vulnerability that they’ve been open to, it means you are playing a part in the journey, so long may that continue and let’s see where the road ends,” Duminy said
Proteas teams in recent years
Big egos? It doesn’t where you work or role you play in any organisation, there’s always going to be ego at play. The important thing is how you facilitate learning around that, and can I place curiosity over judgement. Can I take a back seat – whatever I say is not about me, it’s about the next person, or the team. If we continually review ourselves in that way, I don’t think ego will get too much in the way, although we’ll never get away from it,” Duminy said.
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