Smith calls for split coaching system

With South Africa set to name a new national coach‚ Graeme Smith has floated a radical idea in the debate about the role.

“They need to consider split coaching‚” former South Africa captain Smith said on the BBC’s Test Match Special radio programme on Saturday. “It’s an impossible job for one man to do.”

Smith spoke of teams appointing “a red-ball coach” for test matches as well as a “white-ball coach” for one-day and T20 cricket to ease “the amount of travel and the high pressure”.

“If you do that you’d get a lot more guys looking to get involved‚” he said. “I’m sure a lot of guys look at that job and wonder‚ ‘Is it really worth it?’.”

It would seem to be worth it for Ottis Gibson‚ who reportedly will take the South Africa reins from Russell Domingo when the latter’s contract expires after the test series against England‚ which ends on Tuesday.

The Guardian reported on Saturday that Gibson‚ England’s bowling coach‚ was “torn over the decision‚ with the money on offer from South Africa double that of his current England salary and South Africa a country he enjoyed living in during his playing days at Gauteng and Border”.

It seems his existing employers will look to hang onto him‚ according to the paper: “Andrew Strauss‚ [the England Cricket Board] director of cricket‚ may yet be able to persuade him to remain in situ with an increased counter offer.”

Barbados-born Gibson played 33 first-class matches for Border‚ Gauteng and Griqualand West from October 1992 to February 2001 as a big-hitting fast bowler.

Gibson‚ who is in his second stint with England‚ was West Indies’ head coach when they won the 2012 World T20 title.