Mashimbyi wants new Proteas coaches to bring fresh perspectives and energies

Mandla Mashimbyi cited the need for new voices as the reason for a raft of changes to the Proteas coaching staff — though despite the team’s struggles with the ball, bowling coach Dillon du Preez remains in situ.

Ahead of a high-profile series against India that starts in Durban on Friday, the sweeping changes to the back-room staff after a poor tour to New Zealand might be viewed as the panic button being pressed. Not so, said the Proteas women’s head coach.

“There will never be good timing for this kind of thing, it was a tough decision. But there was nothing personal with the coaching staff. It was important to look forward. I felt we need a change of voice, of energy, perspective … whether it will work, only time will tell,” Mashimbyi said.

Baakier Abrahams (batting coach), whose technical work was appreciated by many senior players, fielding coach Bongani Ndaba and strength and conditioning (S&C) coach Zane Webster were relieved of their duties.

Their replacements are Tumi Masekela, who will take care of S&C duties, Mduduzi Mbatha, as fielding coach, while notably Andrew Puttick, whose last job was as the Afghanistan men’s team’s batting coach, will take over from Abrahams in that role.

Du Preez, who was stand-in head coach before Mashimbyi’s appointment and oversaw the team’s run to the final of the T20 World Cup in 2024, stays. Mashimbyi explained that the team’s problems with the ball had “nothing to do with the capability of the coaches” and it was more pertinent what that person brought into the team environment.

Mashimbyi had also been bowling coach at the Titans before becoming that team’s head coach, so there is certainly sufficient expertise for that department. But the quality of the execution in New Zealand was poor.

The absence of a quick bowler had never been more significantly felt and it risks scuppering the Proteas’ challenge at this year’s T20 World Cup, where South Africa is in a tough group that includes India and Australia.

Mashimbyi has left the door open for Shabnim Ismail, still one of the quickest bowlers in the women’s game, to return. Mashimbyi has been in contact with the 37-year-old, who retired from the international game in 2023 but has continued playing in T20 franchise leagues and domestically for the Lions.

“[It would be] nice to have a player of Shabnim’s calibre in our attack. Maybe she will call me tomorrow and if she does, that would be great. But we need to work with what we have,” he said.

In the absence of a strike bowler, and with Marizanne Kapp continuing with a “return to play” programme and rehab after a lengthy illness, Mashimbyi had said in New Zealand that the Proteas may need to see themselves as a “pressure building team”.

That adjustment is obviously taking time and it has meant that — in the absence of a fast bowler — their next best wicket-taking threat, left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba, was neutered in New Zealand.

“As a unit, you want pressure coming from all sides, and that didn’t happen unfortunately. Our spinners weren’t as effective and that was because we didn’t create enough pressure, we didn’t hunt as a pack. Which made it easy for the New Zealanders against our spinners,” said Mashimbyi.

India’s star-laden batting line-up will not be any easier. Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemima Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur are an imposing line-up.

“There are players in that team who a lot of our players look up to and to get to brush shoulders with them in South Africa means a lot for our players,” Mashimbyi said.

“This series is about a reset — India at home is a good tester for where we are ahead of the World Cup.”