Johannesburg — While some coaches have expressed concern about the lack of first-class cricket on the domestic schedule this season, the Titans’ Mandla Mashimbyi believes there is sufficient experience in South African circles to ensure players can still be Test match ready.
This season’s four-day series that starts on Thursday for the eight Division One teams, features just seven matches for each team. Mashimbyi, who coaches the defending champions, said players need to stop looking for excuses when it comes to the amount of game time available. “It’s seven games, but these guys have been playing for how many seasons? If you are not good enough to be able to graduate to Test level with the experience that most teams have, then you are never going to be good enough,” said Mashimbyi.
Mashimbyi’s counterpart at the Lions, Wandile Gwavu has previously expressed his concern about the lack of first-class fixtures, and how that impacts on measuring whether players are ready for international cricket.
“It’s easy to look at the amount of games we are playing, and say, ‘that’s not enough time to prepare guys for Tests matches,’ but no, some of us have been playing cricket for 15 years, other 10 years, so you know what is expected of you when you have to graduate to Test level,” Mashimbyi said. “You must make sure that mentally you are switched on, so that when the time comes, you make an impact on the global stage. You can look at anything, and see something wrong in it, but at the end of the day it starts and ends with you as a player.”
Mashimbyi has a very experienced group at his disposal, which includes Proteas Test captain Dean Elgar, who will feature for the Titans in their opening four-day match against Western Province starting at Centurion on Thursday. Dewald Brevis has also been included in the squad and will make his first-class debut if selected.
The Titans, who won the first trophy on offer for the Division One teams when they beat the Dolphins in the final of the Cricket South Africa T20 Challenge, have already moved on from that success and Mashimbyi does not anticipate any hangover among his players.
“We were champions on Saturday. On Sunday we were not. We are focusing on what is in front of us and right now, the reality that we have, is the four-day competition,” Mashimbyi said. Winning the T20 Challenge will help the players’ confidence, he added, but more importantly he wants the same attitude to be present in the red-ball format.
“We are definitely not going to be forsaking the processes that we followed in the T20 competition in terms of our mindset and in terms of our KPIs (key performance indicators). Obviously the KPIs change a bit, but the mindset stays the same; we still want to play a positive brand of cricket,” said Mashimbyi.
“There are a lot of lessons from a mental side and confidence that we can take out of that campaign. Hopefully we don’t get complacent, and we don’t take anything for granted and we show up come Thursday.”
Titans squad: Sibonelo Makhanya (c), Dean Elgar, Neil Brand, Theunis de Bruyn, Jiveshen Pillay, Musa Twala (wk), Corbin Bosch, Dayyaan Galiem, Aya Gqamane, Simon Harmer, Junior Dala, Dewald Brevis, Smangaliso Nhlebela, Matthew Boast
Four-Day Series Fixtures (Division One):
Multiply Titans vs Six Gun Grill Western Province, SuperSport Park; Gbets Boland Rocks vs Dafabet Eastern Province Warriors, Boland Park; ITEC Free State Knights vs North West Dragons, Mangaung Oval
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