Pressure just too much for Rob Walter, now Proteas ODI scene set for Shukri Conrad

Sharp Turn Column

Rob Walter’s sudden resignation as Proteas white-ball coach sent shockwaves through South African cricket on Tuesday afternoon.

But should it really have, though?

Despite leading the Proteas team to their first-ever World Cup final – the T20 version – in Barbados last year, and two consecutive semi-finals at both the ODI World Cup and Champions Trophy as recently as last month, Walter has been taking strain for a number of months now.

Coaching at international level is a high-pressure affair, and coaching South Africa even more so, due to the unique challenges it presents.

But Walter would have known that before he signed on the dotted line two years ago, having been involved with the Proteas before as a strength and conditioning coach in a previous lifetime.

Nonetheless, it was still a rude awakening when he swapped handing out gym schedules to ultimately becoming the man responsible for all the decision-making – even more so with the Proteas Men’s teams operating without a selection panel.

This was the fundamental reason that led to Walter walking away from the job with a home World Cup looming in two years’ time... the pressure just became too much.

The 49-year-old enjoys his quaint life in Hawke’s Bay down in the deep south of New Zealand. He was not averse to saying that “a lot of my work is done over the internet”, and never ever considered moving back home.

“We came to New Zealand eight years ago now, and my motivations are for my family, really,’’ Walter has said previously.

“My boys are eight and six, and one’s in his third year in school and the other one’s second year in school. They’re very happy, my wife’s got a job here, and international sport is fickle.

“Do you uproot all three of them and move back to South Africa? It is home in a way, but it’s not the boys’ home. They’ve lived here (in New Zealand).

“To do that with that knowledge it could end abruptly, what do you do then?

“Do we move back here, or where do we go next? To allow the three of them to have stability and for me to travel made a lot more sense.”

But this situation did not sit well with some Cricket SA board members, as they felt that Walter had lost touch with the realities of South Africa.

His selection of Kagiso Rabada as the sole black African in the Proteas squad for last year’s T20 World Cup stirred up a hornet’s nest.

But it was Walter’s comments in the gallows of the Wanderers after the T20I series defeat to India that saw him not only earn the ire of the CSA suits, but fundamentally saw him lose the trust of his dressing-room, particularly the senior black players within the squad, which hastened his exit. 

His insinuation that he omitted coloured seamer Ottniel Baartman – who was the leading wicket-taker in SA20 history at the time – due to being forced to play black African bowlers Lutho Sipamla and Nqaba Peter because “everyone needs to play their part in terms of transforming this team and make it more representative”, when a white bowler like Gerald Coetzee was playing consistently despite being in poor form, left a bitter taste.

The make-up of Walter’s support staff also left him exposed.

While every coach chooses people that he trusts, the narrative that emerged smelled too much like “jobs for pals”, ranging from former batting coach JP Duminy to bowling coach Anton Roux.

But the biggest consternation was the involvement of performance coach – aka mental conditioning – Tom Dawson-Squibb.

The former UCT practitioner has had extensive success in the rugby fraternity with the Ikeys and Stormers, and had tried to replicate the formula with the Proteas.

However, the players were starting to feel that Walter was relying too heavily on Dawson-Squibb’s input and not trusting his own judgement.

Equally, the structured approach, with the multitude of daily meetings, wore the players down.

It was in complete contrast to the Test culture that was thriving under Proteas red-ball coach Shukri Conrad.

While Conrad is viewed from the outside as a sharp-shooter, it is not an accurate reflection of his character.

His man-management skills are built on trust and honesty. These are traits that players crave from a coach. They simply want to know where they stand without any meddling middle-men in between.

Conrad’s larger-than-life personality also draws him to the spotlight. He craves the pressure.

As he has often said before: “If I wanted job security, I would have stayed a teacher!”

This pragmatic approach is what the Proteas require across all formats.

Conrad has the respect of all the players – both young and old – in the current set-up. 

He’s also shown that he has the ability to not only get the entire team to play for each other, but also buy into a system where all players are treated equally. 

Having grown up in a disenfranchised system, Conrad is acutely aware of his responsibilities of transforming the national team.

But that is not at the expense of others, as the international debuts of Tristan Stubbs, Gerald Coetzee and development of Ryan Rickelton can attest. 

CSA have an opportunity to do the right thing now by appointing Conrad across formats. They should not let it go to waste.