Boucher: It would be ‘stupid’ to lose Kallis, Harris’ expertise

Proteas coach Mark Boucher believes it would be “stupid” to lose the services of Jacques Kallis and Paul Harris to the national set-up.

Kallis has been operating as a batting consultant to the Proteas since Boucher took the reins towards the end of last year while Harris has done work as a spin bowling consultant, particularly with Test spinner Keshav Maharaj.

Neither coach is employed on a full-time basis, however, but Boucher is hopeful that something can be done to keep them around whenever cricket does resume following the global coronavirus crisis.

“They’ve done great work,” Boucher said of Kallis and Harris.

“I’m not too sure what’s going to happen going forward with them, but it would be stupid to lose out on two cricket brains like that. Hopefully we can sort something out contractually for both moving forward as well as some other guys coming in with fresh ideas.”

Boucher, who said he was both disappointed and encouraged by his first summer in charge of the Proteas, had special praise for his assistant Enoch Nkwe.

“The core of the coaching staff is myself and Enoch (Nkwe) and then you get Langers (Charl Langeveldt) from the bowling side, who has been brilliant, and then you get Onters (Justin Ontong) who is the fielding coach but also adds a lot of value in the batting department as well,” Boucher explained.

“Myself and Enoch have had some great conversations and I think we understand each other really well at the moment. Our heads are in the right places and we’ve certainly got the same idea of where we want to go.

“I think we complement each other really well. He’s got a lot of relationships with players that I haven’t got to know properly yet and he’s very understanding of helping take a load off me every now and again, and I’m very appreciative of that.”

South Africa’s upcoming tour of Sri Lanka and the West Indies are still in doubt as the coronavirus continues to complicate the international sporting calendar.

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