South Africa this week fired Symonds and appointed Ray Jennings as coach of the Proteas.
For those that were upset about some player’s antics in Pakistan, THIS is a coach whom you would love to hate. He plays cricket even harder than the Ausies and love to be overly-aggressive.
Some pointers/facts on Jennings.
He coached a small team and ended up taking the most trophees within 3 years of coaching. He takes NO nonsense from players and some of his coaching methods/ideas are totally unconventional.
When Alan Donald came in to bat against his team (just before a new important tour started) he told Andre Nel to go for his head. After Donald slowly got up from a bouncer against the head, he offered Nel R1000 to hit Donald again. (Nel was one of the non-popular players in Pakistan.)
He offered another bowler a golden Kruger coin if he could send Daryll Cullinan to the ground. The coin was waiting in the dressing room when the bowler succeeded.
Once when his players did not put in a spirited performance in a match, he send their lunch (sandwiches, etc.) away from the dressing rooms with the words: “Send it to an old age home and give it to people that would appreciate it. My players don’t deserve it.”
Players that send off no-balls during One Dayers had to run 4 times round the field for every no-ball directly after the match. Wides resulted in one trip per wide.
He played for the province Transvaal when they were known as the Mean Machine in the 1970’s players like Jimmy Cook, Kallicharan, Greame Pollock, Clive Rice, etc, etc). They existed of ±9 of the National squad then. Jennings was one of the best WICKY-wicket keepers I have ever seen personally (noadays a good wicket keeper is a good batsman that can keep a little with huge cloves). He totally outclassed Alan Knott on an English tour of South Africa.
It will be interesting to see what this block will do with the South Africans. I don’t know whether I will be able to endorse all he will do…