South Africa's New Coach Interviews are Done; Gary Kirsten Favourite, Pybus in Line

Cricket South Africa will not be announcing the new South African coach until the 6th of June. While speculation carries on, it would seem that Gary Kirsten would be the popular vote to take over from Corrie van Zyl, provided CSA and Kirsten can work out their personal agendas into an integrated whole.

gary kirsten carries kit

Cricket South Africa would not reveal the final candidates at the interviews conducted over two days. But it would seem that Gary Kirsten, the former Indian coach, and Richard Pybus, the Cobras coach, are the prime candidates on the list that was also supposed to include Vinnie Barnes, the South African assistant coach.

Although it was known that Corrie van Zyl would step down as South Africa's coach at the end of the IPL, South Africa have been waiting on the availability of Kirsten after the former South African batsman was able to elevate India's status as the no.1 ranked Test team and also, win the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

For South Africa, their Test results have stagnated since beating Australia in Australia and their World Cup disasters continued to be beaten by New Zealand. In that light, South Africa need not only a technically attuned coach but one who can lock into the mindset of the players because the team is unable to shake of the prejudice of chokers stuck against them and seem to have stumbled when they should have starred.

Kirsten was actively pursued even without filling in an application with the post. However, Kirsten has family obligations to keep with a third child reportedly on the way which is something Cricket South Africa will want to work out to make sure that they are able to get Kirsten's insight.

Although unconfirmed, Kirsten may have new designs to transform South African cricket, whether that involves taking on a role similar to that of Andy Flower and director and coach and also, perhaps work on one department with South Africa set to appoint a new ODI and Test team captain following Graeme Smith's stepping down from the ODI captaincy. While Johan Botha is the South African Twenty20 captain, AB de Villiers is being touted as the popular choice for the captaincy, which means Cricket South Africa would have to handle the double transition delicately.