Protea woes down to domestic problems, says former stalwart

Former Proteas all-rounder Ryan McLaren has spent the last few months actively involved in schoolboy cricket so he knows there is still tremendous talent in this country and he also does not want to knock the current players in the national team who will return from a disastrous tour of India tomorrow morning.

But, as someone who is well-qualified to speak on domestic structures, having played 154 first-class and 396 white-ball games in South Africa, England and India, McLaren said he is concerned that franchise cricket is not creating strong enough players to hold their ground at international level.

“I know everyone is giving their five cents worth about the Proteas, but we have to face reality. In a sport space of time they have lost AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Hashim Amla and Morne Morkel, and it’s tough for any team to lose that experience and very tough to replace overnight. I feel for the guys, they are the best we have at the moment.

“It was a very tough tour, and tough to watch, and also a big challenge for Faf du Plessis, coming up against the best in the world in their own country with a very young line-up. We’ll just have to be patient and back the Proteas as they try and put in consistent performances,” McLaren, who played two Tests, 54 ODIs and 12 T20 internationals for South Africa, told The Citizen.

The 36-year-old, who retired at the end of last season with more than 6 000 first-class runs and 459 wickets, is coaching at his alma mater Grey College and says the pipeline at that level is still working perfectly well.

“I’ve watched a lot of school cricket lately and we are not short of talent. The big question is what we do with them afterwards? I’m afraid our first-class cricket is a very far step away from international level. In our bowling attacks, there are maybe two strong seamers in each team, but batsmen know they can see them off and then make runs.

“But in international cricket, there’s no place to hide, you have the opening bowlers and then the change bowlers still bowl at 140 and are accurate and skilful. We don’t have that depth.

“It’s a challenge to find batsmen for the top six whereas in the past we had strong batsmen at seven or eight scoring centuries, like in county cricket where guys batting eight almost always have first-class hundreds,” McLaren said.

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