It's now less than a year before the start of the T20 World Cup in Australia.
And for a nation that bombed completely at the 50-over edition earlier this year, one that has never won a World Cup in any format and one that really struggled on their recent tour of India, South Africa is the last team that can afford to be without a permanent coach at this point in time.
I find it amusing, to say the least, that the “superstars” at Cricket South Africa (CSA) have not yet come up with a permanent solution after bravely sacking Ottis Gibson.
If they didn’t have a contingency plan, why fire the man in the first place?
Anyway, I hear Enoch Nkwe will again be in charge of the team when England come to our shores later this month. Good luck to him.
Nothing against the man, I don’t know him and I can’t say that I know much about his cricket career either.
What I do know is that in order to win big trophies, you need larger-than-life characters.
ACE OF PACE: Ou man Dale Steyn of Cape Town Blitz. Picture: Ryan Wilksky/BackpagePix.
My solution therefore for the national cricket team, specifically for the T20 World Cup, is for the players to take control.
Experienced players. Die ou manne.
And here I want CSA to pull out all the stops.
A look at the current Mzansi Super League (MSL) tournament reveals a few things, some of the older players in our country are still the best at what they do.
TURNING THE TABLES: SA's golden oldie Imran Tahir. Picture: Deryck Foster/BackpagePix.
Post-World Cup, Imran Tahir (aged 40) retired from ODI cricket, while Dale Steyn (36) is no longer available in five-day matches.
Steyn was then not selected for the India T20s, indicating that he is perhaps not part of this team’s 2020 vision.
Look at the leading wicket-takers in the MSL and you’ll see the Phalaborwa Express at the top of the pile with seven wickets before Sunday’s match.
Scroll down and you’ll find Tahir in third place with 10 scalps.
Get this; nog ‘n ou hond, Morne Morkel, is in fifth place.
And while I’m not too sure about him for the World Cup, I don’t think it will be a bad option to have him in the squad, especially if the team is going to be run by an over-30s club.
But here is the big fish, the one that, if he can be caught, might just give South Africa a chance of getting out of their World Cup pool which includes 50-over champs England and T20 superstars India is none other than AB de Villiers.
Ja mense, there was a big issue when Abbas apparently wanted to return ahead of the 50-over World Cup and I was one of the first to ask who he thinks he was.
But with no coach in the picture yet and the players taking charge of the team, you need the South African poster-child for T20 cricket in your team.
You need 35-year-old retired hitman AB de Villiers.
NEEDS HIS OLD PAL: Faf du Plessis. Picture: Samuel SHivambu/BackpagePix.
Next to captain and dik pel Faf du Plessis, they can control matters on the pitch, taking the pressure off of whoever the director or coach is.
AB might be oud, but he is still as hot as ever.
In the MSL, he currently has the third-highest batting average of players that have scored more than 100 runs in the tournament.
But I’m not going to build his case for inclusion, if you’re a cricket fan, you know his worth.
Anyway, the man has the third-highest average behind another experienced head in Dean Elgar, who is not viewed as a white-ball specialist in SA, and big-hitting T20 star David Miller.
The bottom line is this; we need our players to take control of our cricket, because the boardroom men can’t.
In that case, we need all the experience we can gather to help whoever the new coach is mould the next generation into superstars.
It is evident on current national form and just by looking at the MSL stats that the youngsters are just not coming through as they should at the moment.
Bring back the over 30s and go all-out Down Under to bring back glory. Who knows? Maybe we might have another trophy parade in the streets of South Africa next year