Cricket South Africa’s careful monitoring of playing resources ahead of a jam-packed summer for the Proteas has provided room for some, like Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi, to rest and others to pursue different playing options, like Marco Jansen in The Hundred.
The three quick bowlers offer a unique case-study in the very structured and calculated manner players are monitored and assessed so that they can perform at optimum level in the most crucial assignments of the season.
“We have specific plans for each player. Lungi’s will be different to KG’s and theirs will differ from what Marco is doing,” said Cricket SA’s chief medical officer, Dr Hashendra Ramjee.
“Ultimately, what we want to do is know the type of intensity at which the players are performing and ensure that they are at the optimum level for what the coaches want.”
With Tests, ODIs, T20 Internationals, the SA20, a tour to Sri Lanka, the IPL and possibly the World Test Championship final on the agenda between September 2026 and June 2027, CSA’s Medical Committee constructed detailed plans to keep players fresh.
“It’s not just the physical element, but the mental side too, because that also impacts the physical,” Ramjee added.
In addition to the agenda for the next nine months, which includes 10 or 11 Tests, nine ODIs and three T20Is, CSA also had to consider next year’s World Cup, which will start in October.
In Ngidi’s case, talks with the Medical Committee and Proteas head coach Shukri Conrad persuaded him to choose rest over stints in the US, in Major League Cricket or England, where The Hundred is taking place.
“He has been playing a lot of cricket almost non-stop since the (World Test Championship) final last year,” Ramjee said of Ngidi.
After a 12-week strength and conditioning block to help with a groin ailment, in the second half of 2024, Ngidi played his first Test in nine months at Lord’s last year and has barely had a break since.
He played in the triangular T20 series in Zimbabwe, then toured Australia, England, Pakistan, India — although he played no part in the Tests in those countries — back to SA for the SA20 and the T20s with West indies and then returned to India for the T20 World Cup followed by the IPL.
In total Ngidi played 30 matches for the Proteas, bowling 152 overs across formats.
Rabada was slightly less busy but that was only because he’d picked up a rib injury which ruled him out of the Indian tour in November/December last year. He played three Tests and 14 T20 Internationals, bowling a total of 140.2 overs.
Rabada was more involved in the IPL, playing 17 games to Ngidi’s 12, but the latter missed some time after picking up a head injury while fielding for the Delhi Capitals.
For Rabada, who’s already spent time holidaying in Greece, the next few weeks ahead of the series with Australia will involve what Ramjee described as “relative rest”.
“Someone like KG is very serious and very professional about his training and his gym work. We monitor each player on a weekly basis so we will know what that gym work involves.”
Both Rabada and Ngidi began their first blocks of bowling training this week, and will steadily build up overs — described as bowling loads — before the Australians arrive for the three-match ODI series in the last week of September.
Conrad recently told the Sunday Times, that he’d had to strike a careful balance that involved prioritising the Test matches this summer, while trying to refine the squad for next year’s World Cup.
The Proteas coach has already decided that players — most likely to include Rabada, Ngidi and Jansen — who will face Australia will not participate in the three ODIs or three T20Is against Bangladesh. The last of those matches takes place three days before the start of the first Test against England.
“Obviously we have monitoring programmes for all the (nationally) contracted players, but because it is virtually non-stop from September to that Sri Lanka tour at the end of February we have also asked Shukri and Patrick (Moroney, chief selector) to give us some additional names of players, that are on their radar, so that we can set up agendas for them too,” said Ramjee.
South African players participating in The Hundred all wear GPS monitors, with the data captured from those fed into the Medical Committee’s system to provide detailed analysis about the optimal level at which players are operating. “It helps with early detection of injuries or any issues that may arise.”
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