It didn't really matter which team took it to Australia.

The joy of watching Ricky Ponting's troops being thoroughly outclassed by India in the second Test in Mohali was immense. Finally, the Aussie juggernaut has been stopped.

So let's enjoy it while it lasts.

Perhaps even more significant for us in South Africa though, is the role played by coach Gary Kirsten in India's absolute mauling of the men from Down Under. While it is tempting to proudly puff out my chest and declare that Kirsten is 'one of us', I can't help but wonder if yet another underappreciated resource has been lost to cricket in this country.

When Kirsten signed a two-year deal with India last December, he had precious little experience of top level coaching. In fact, with just a short stint as a provincial batting consultant and a brief flirtation with his own academy, ‘Gazza' certainly didn't stand out as someone with the credentials to excel as an international coach.

Indeed, the move to appoint the former Test opener was greeted with plenty of scepticism in India, and rightly so. The Board of Control for Cricket in India risked mass riots by hiring another ‘non-Indian', and one who had hung up his batting gloves fewer than four years previously (to put things in perspective, coach Kirsten is just three years older than Test captain Anil Kumble).

In all honesty, if Kirsten had been hired as Proteas coach at the time, I would have been cynical at best.

In the build-up to his first official series at the helm, ironically against the country of his birth, Kirsten revealed on his blog that he felt 'completely Indian'. After the Test series, which ended in a 1-1 draw, the man who still holds the record for the highest individual score for South Africa in one-day cricket, declared that he felt like his 'bloodline extended back for 100 years in India'. Ouch. For a South African fan, that's akin to swift kick in the groin.

A similar situation played itself out with Allan Donald during his spell as part-time bowling coach to England. To see the legendary Proteas fast bowler, a hero of my youth, grinning in an England tracksuit while trying to coax Steve Harmison back to something resembling form, was gut-wrenching.

In both cases, I felt precisely the same way. Simply put, I was angry. How could they turn their backs on South Africa?

But once the blinding passion (mandatory for a true fan, I tell myself) subsided, I realised that in this professional era you can't blame a guy for taking up a position, especially if it's pretty lucrative, with an opposition team. A former player just can't wait around forever for Cricket South Africa to offer him something to do with his day. In fact, one can't really even blame Gerald Majola & Co. since there are far more ex-Proteas than there are vacancies.

Throw the Kolpak ruling (which sees players effectively giving up their right to play for South Africa for a place on a county team) into the equation and we have a situation similar in many ways to South Africa's ‘brain drain' worry. And there is very little that can be done about it.

For India, Kirsten's presence is very much in the background, something that takes some doing in such a cricket-mad country. Mirroring his approach as a player, the 40-year-old prefers to stay out of the limelight and go about his business with logic and determination. Without wanting to pass judgement on Kirsten too early, it certainly appears to be paying off for India.

If India can sustain their dominance, and Kirsten manages to quietly lead his adopted country to glory, by the end of the Test series South Africa could very well be lamenting the loss of another cricketing asset.

And while I understand Kirsten's decision and wish him well, the fan in me anxiously hopes that his success doesn't pierce the skin of South African cricket, leading to a violent haemorrhage of valuable coaching talent.

  • Is there a future in South African cricket for 'Gazza'? Leave a comment below!
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