Gary Kirsten named South Africa coach

Gary Kirsten has been appointed coach of the South Africa team for a term of two years. He will be joined by Allan Donald as bowling coach, and Russell Domingo, who coached the Warriors, as an assistant.

"I'm delighted by the appointment and consider it a major honour," Kirsten said at a press conference in Johannesburg. "It's nice to be back … it's nice to be among my people and to be working within that space."


Kirsten will begin his term as coach on August 1 and his first assignment will be a home series against Australia. He took over from Corrie van Zyl, who was an interim coach for 14 months after Mickey Arthur resigned following the home series against England in 2009-10.

This is Kirsten's second stint as coach of an international team. He finished a two-year term with India in April, after helping them win the 2011 World Cup and become the No. 1 Test team. At the end of his tenure, Kirsten indicated he would take time off to be with his young family.
"There was a lot to consider from my side, from a personal perspective and from my time with Indian cricket," he said. "A cooling off period was necessary." Kirsten will have four months off from the end of his time with India to his starting date with South Africa.

Kirsten described his new role as that of "team director/head coach" who would be at the helm of the "coaching team" which may also employ the services of a fielding coach on a contractual basis. CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said that after the board decided to appoint Kirsten, he was allowed to compile his own team of coaches, which included Donald and Domingo.

Donald, who recently lost the Australia bowling job to Craig McDermott, turned down an offer from New Zealand Cricket in order to take up the role with South Africa. He was approached on Friday, when "some of my bags were packed" for New Zealand but did an about turn immediately "When I got the call from Gary it took me all but half a second to say yes," Donald said. "It was almost like the very first call from Doctor Bacher in 1991, saying you are going to India and representing your country." Donald will travel with the South Africa A team to Zimbabwe at the end of June for a tri-series which also involves Australia A.

Donald's appointment means Vincent Barnes' contract will be terminated at the end of June. Barnes has been involved as South Africa's bowling and assistant coach since 2003 and was hopeful of continuing his involvement. "He was offered the job of coaching Bangladesh and has turned it down," Majola said. "We have offered him a role at the High Perfomance Centre and are waiting for him to respond."

The assistant role will be filled by Domingo, who was coach of the A side when they played Bangladesh A in April this year. He has been coach of the Warriors franchise for the last four seasons and won both the MTN40 and Standard Bank Pro20 titles in the 2009-10 season. "It is a positive for me having worked with a lot of players at South Africa A level," Doningo said. "I suppose I can give Allan and Gary a little bit of insight into the players."

Kirsten did not discuss whether he would travel extensively, as it was initially thought he would not accompany the team on lesser tours. He indicated, however, that Domingo was being groomed for bigger things when he said, "There might well come a time when I feel that we can be quite flexible within our coaching staff."