Domingo’s contract will expire after South Africa’s tour of England
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Russell Domingo only has two days left to reapply for the head coach position being advertised by Cricket South Africa, but he is unsure whether he wants to do so.
Domingo has been the Proteas’ head coach since 2013, but while the national team have enjoyed a lot of success under his guidance, their trophy cabinet when it comes to major ICC events continues to remain barren.
To make matters worse, South Africa had a chance to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy on Sunday, but they blew the chance to qualify for the last four after a dismal performance led to India crushing them by eight wickets.
With his tenure coming to an end after South Africa’s tour of England and with just a couple of days to go before the deadline for the advertised head coach job expires, Domingo reiterated he is unsure whether he wants to be in charge until the 2019 World Cup.
“We’ve come so close on so many occasions, and it’s just disappointing that we didn’t give ourselves the best chance here,” Domingo said. “The players are bitterly disappointed. I can tell you it’s not through lack of trying or lack of effort or commitment.
“Someone told me that India didn’t field at all for the last couple of days (before our match), we try and field as much as we can. So it’s not through lack of effort. I’m just bitterly disappointed for the players. They’ve played some great cricket this year and sometimes life can be unfair. But you’ve got to make your own luck as well.”
Just like captain AB de Villiers, Domingo was at a loss of words to explain where the wheels came off in regards to the Proteas’ Champions Trophy campaign.
“You just need to play well on the day, that’s the bottom line,” he said. “There’s no magic wand or injection that you’re going to give guys.
“Guys just need to make the best decision on the day and do what they’ve done prior to those particular games. We haven’t done that. We’ve played great cricket over the last year and Sunday was probably our worst game. We didn’t do the basics well enough and that’s what you need to do in these games.”
Despite South Africa failing to fire at another ICC competition, Domingo insisted that the team management had done everything in their power to prepare the team for the tournament.
“We’ve had two bad games here, it doesn’t make the side a bad side,” he said. “There are always going to be questions asked until the side wins an event, wins these knock-out games, wins these big games, and rightly so. But there’s no magic wand. A lot of things have been tried, a lot of things have been discussed. A lot of people have been involved and unfortunately the results at the moment are still the same.”
There is no doubt that being eliminated from the Champions Trophy will be a bitter pill to swallow, but Domingo pointed out that his side have to keep their heads high and learn from the mistakes they made.
“You keep trying, that’s the bottom line. You can’t give up,” Domingo said. “The side’s got to go away and reassess, think about it, and start moving forward again.
“Players need to go away and think about it for a couple of days. Never good to make decisions when emotions are high, so once things have calmed down I suppose people need to sit down and think of a way forward once again. Take it from there. Now is not the time.”