ICC World Cup 2019 | Need time for the aggressive brand of cricket to bed in, says Ottis Gibson
Ottis Gibson said that the immediate need for South African cricket is to give the staff and the players ample time for their positive and aggressive brand of cricket to come through. Gibson, who took over as head coach in August 2017, could not inspire his side to the World Cup semifinals.
Ottis Gibson came into the role as head coach of the South African team with enough experience of the country and its cricketing culture, having played for three teams in the Sunfoil Series during the late 1990s, as a result of which the former West Indian fast bowler went down the aggressive route.
Since taking over in August 2017, he has tried to get his side to play relentless positive cricket, spearheaded by the young pacer Kagiso Rabada. However, as South Africa return home with just three wins from nine games, things haven’t gone according to plan for Gibson. He says the particular brand of cricket needs time to evolve.
"Time, I would say. Having enough time to build a team. We tried the whole positive and aggressive brand of cricket but you need time. Sometimes it's not going to work but you need time for that to bed in, for people to understand what it is that you are trying to get across and for people to understand their roles," Gibson was quoted saying by CricketNext.
However, time is not something that Gibson has a lot of. In fact, his contract with Cricket South Africa (CSA) is set to end by the middle of September. Taking into account his team’s poor show at the World Cup, one might think that the coach is preparing to step down. But that is not the case with Gibson.
"I want my job I love my job. I have to hear from them (CSA). The contract was always to mid-September 2019, so we'll have to see," Gibson said. The former West Indies, and England coach said that his hopes rest on the CSA looking at the World Cup along with the last 22 months with him at the helm.
"From my point of view, we have had a disappointing World Cup and if you take the World Cup in isolation, you might feel the need for change. But if you look over the last two years, we have done some good things as well. We'll have to wait and see how CSA look at the whole picture," Gibson said.
Gibson called for the board to take notes from the model that England followed after their disappointing campaign in 2015. Australian Trevor Bayliss, who was appointed head coach with Gibson working alongside him as bowling coach, was given four years to build the team. Gibson believes that the rich talents in South African cricket will bloom come 2023.
"Trevor Bayliss came in in 2015 and he had from 2015 until now to build the team. Over the course of those four years, you've seen what he has done for the team. There is a lot of talent in South Africa. Whether that talent is ready to take the next step is what we need to see over the next 12 months. If you are thinking in the white-ball sense, around the World Cup, we've got four years to plan for a World Cup, which gives you a lot more time," he added.
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