Shukri Conrad admitted that he pondered the reason for playing a T20 series immediately after a World Cup but said the last fortnight in New Zealand has provided valuable experience for young players.
“A lot of people have questioned the value of the series, why you’d have it; we all did at one stage,” the Proteas head coach admitted on Tuesday, ahead of the series-deciding finale against the Black Caps in Christchurch.
Barely a week after the teams played in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup in Kolkata, India, two vastly different squads met in Mt Manganui to start a five-match series that seemed to have little context other than making New Zealand Cricket some extra dollars.
“If you look at the younger guys who’ve become household names in SA20, as soon as you expose them to international cricket, there’s still a gap and more pressure and scrutiny that they’d never have experienced before. On that front, it has been an invaluable exercise,” said Conrad.
Conor Esterhuizen, Nqobani Mokoena, Prenalen Subrayen, Jordan Hermann and Dian Forrester all earned their first T20 International caps. Two of them, Esterhuizen and Mokoena, have been named player of the match during the series. “While both teams are not at full strength, it has been an exciting series, whether it is fully fledged international cricket – the jury is out on that,” Conrad mused.
“People will have their opinion, but as soon as you pull on the Proteas jumper – the same for the Kiwis – you represent your country, and you have to try and make them proud.”
The standard of play certainly didn’t match that seen at the World Cup, and the need for a T20 series so soon after that tournament and with the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting this week once more brings the sport’s global calendar into focus.
With International Cricket Council (ICC) men’s events taking place on an annual basis, each of the governing body’s member countries either establishing or trying to create franchise leagues, the time for bilateral series’s – including Test cricket – is being restricted.
Since Enoch Nkwe took over as director of national teams, SA has used bilateral series to dish out caps and build experience for the tier of players just below the senior group, like Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram and Kagiso Rabada. They’ve also rested the household names – last year none of them played in the one-day series in Pakistan to give them time to rest before the tour to India – and for the tour to New Zealand, they’ve been given time off ahead of the IPL.
SA has eight home Tests this summer, a host of limited overs internationals, then an SA20, a tour to Sri Lanka, another IPL, and then later next year the World Cup, so every opportunity to give the top players a break is crucial.
In addition, the growth of T20 leagues continues.
