From “tiki taka” to “Artistic Hunters”.
The former is a well-known style of football that reached its zenith in South Africa in 2010 when Spain won the World Cup. The other sounds like a folk rock band that's still waiting to make it big, but should consider its future because Mumford & Sons have cornered the market.
Artistic Hunters is not a title you’d expect to be attached to a style of cricket, but that’s what Cricket South Africa director of cricket Enoch Nkwe has done. And he didn’t go searching through names of bands to get there.
He borrowed from his love of Barcelona Football Club and specifically the soft-passing style adopted when Pep Guardiola was manager of “tiki taka”.
If it sounds like a stretch, that’s because it is, but it's also provided clarity for the players and hopefully for domestic coaches who need to implement this philosophy.
Nkwe immersed himself in the Barca way long before he became a cricket coach and then director of cricket. The bookshelves at his home are dominated by the personalities — mostly Guardiola — and the club the now-Manchester City boss managed for four years.
“Creating a brand was about the mindset and finding the simplest way to try to play a more attacking style of cricket. So when the opportunity is not there to be as explosive or attacking, how do we continue to attack without having to take high risks?
“I describe it in a football way. I'm a big Barcelona fan, so like 'tiki taka', when you are in control of possession you keep a high line and you are attacking, but if you lose possession, how do you rebuild? So in cricket terms, if you lose quick wickets, how do you rebuild without putting yourself under pressure and continue to move the game forward?”
If there is a cricketing version of “tiki taka”, it’s more likely to be the process of taking ones and twos rather than go in search of diagonal long passes that would be akin to smashing the ball over the boundary.
But it's the mindset that’s crucial. South Africa don’t want to take a backward step. In boxing parlance, a phrase multiple generations of Proteas players have used is “throwing the first punch”. That is still part of the Artistic Hunters philosophy.
“We thought of words such as being artistic — that’s being creative and certain players are good at that, playing laps, reverse, popping it over the top, they have their own way of being creative. Artistic is also being street smart.”
The hunter element is the aggression, being bold and self-confident, Nkwe explained. “We summed it up as being ‘Artistic Hunters’.”
While Nkwe may have been clear in his own mind about the Artistic Hunters philosophy, there are grizzled coaches and veteran cricketers in South Africa who would have been tasked with implementing this who could be forgiven for laughing it off.
In practical terms, does it all work?
“It’s easier to illustrate with batting,” Nkwe said. Which is what he did in a roadshow to provincial unions in August. He used the second T20 International between the Proteas and the West Indies played in Centurion earlier this year as his “show and tell” for the domestic coaches.
In that match, South Africa set the world record for a run chase in a T20 International when they notched up 259/4, winning with seven balls to spare. Quinton de Kock scored 100 and Reeza Hendricks 68, with the pair’s opening partnership worth 152 runs, which came off 65 balls.
“The partnership in that game between 'Quinny' and Reeza was aggressive, it wasn’t reckless, there were proper cricket shots. Quinny was Quinny, Reeza was Reeza. That was the Hunters mindset but they did it in a way that wasn’t reckless,” Nkwe said.
Klaasie and Markram applied the artistic mindset where, like losing possession in football, they worked to get it back to regain control - they went about eight balls without a boundary, just hitting ones and twos.
— Enoch Nkwe
The loss of four wickets for 64 runs in 29 balls demanded use of the artistic element. South Africa scored 24 runs off 23 deliveries after Hendricks’ dismissal, with just two fours.
“Klaasie and Markram applied the artistic mindset where, like losing possession in football, they worked to get it back to regain control — they went about eight balls without a boundary, just hitting ones and twos. That process was being artistic without having to put yourself at risk while still moving the game forward.
“We maintained the scoring rate and they put themselves in a position to go for the kill.”
The hunter mentality at work to end the match.
It is understandable if the players in the Proteas’ World Cup squad are a little shy of outlining the Artistic Hunters philosophy, because it could provide ammunition for the opposition. That they are able to apply it in practice is a credit to them.
Four South African batters have made centuries at the World Cup and De Kock, less a hunter and more a fisherman, is the leading century-maker in the tournament with four.
Nkwe offered proof that the philosophy was starting to hit home with domestic players by pointing to the final Division 2 One-Day Cup, where a South African emerging side, made up mostly of under-19 players, smashed 273 in just 32.2 overs to defeat the Knights. “There was no slogging, they won by playing proper cricket shots,” Nkwe said.
“We know we’ve got the talent in South Africa, it's been about how we allow our cricketers to express themselves.”
By being Artistic Hunters it seems.
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