CAPE TOWN, (Reuters) – Cricket South Africa have appointed former test stalwart Jacques Kallis as batting consultant ahead of the four-test series with England, while Charl Langeveldt is set to be added to the technical team to coach the bowlers.
Kallis, one of the game’s great all-rounders, will be reunited with head coach Mark Boucher and director of cricket Graeme Smith after the trio played leading roles on the pitch in helping South Africa to the number one ranking across all three formats.
South Africa have struggled with the bat in five-day cricket in 2019, having only passed 300 once in their last 10 innings at home to Sri Lanka and away in India. They failed to reach 200 five times.
The retirement of Smith, Kallis, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers in recent years has decimated the South African top order and Boucher will lean on his former teammate to improve their fortunes.
Kallis played in a combined 519 international matches, scoring 25,534 runs and taking 577 wickets. He retired from all forms of international cricket in 2014 after amassing 62 international centuries.
Langeveldt is also set to be added to the coaching setup after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) said on Wednesday the former paceman had been released from his role of bowling coach.
The BCB said it had received a request from Cricket South Africa (CSA) to release Langeveldt, who took up the Bangladesh role in July on a two-year contract.
“I can confirm that we have received a formal request for his release,” BCB CEO Nizam Uddin Chowdhury said in a statement.
“We value our strong cricketing relationship with CSA.
“We have also taken into consideration that he was a South African international cricketer and we understand his reasons for wanting to work with his own team. The Board has decided to release him with immediate effect.”
Langeveldt played 87 matches across all formats for South Africa and also retired in 2014.
The first test against England starts on Boxing Day in Pretoria, followed by matches in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. (Reporting By Nick Said and Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Nick Macfie)
