Vincent Barnes was appointed as high performance coach of Cricket South Africa (CSA) it was announced on Tuesday.
The fomer assistant coach in the national setup, was in the running for the head position before Gary Kirsten was confirmed as the man for the job at the beginning of June.
Barnes will team up with former Proteas coach Corrie Van Zyl in the running and implementation of CSA’s high performance programmes.
“Player development has always been a big passion of mine, and after reviewing a few offers, I felt this is where I can best contribute to South African cricket,” said Barnes.
“We want to bridge the gap between franchise cricket and the national team but also scan the vast South African landscape for promising young cricketers, especially unearthing young black African cricketers, which is a priority.
This is an exciting challenge and opportunity for me.”
Gerald Majola, CEO of CSA, said he was excited to have Barnes involved in South African cricket.
“Vincent has a wealth of international experience and knowledge, and is clued up about the South African cricket environment. We are excited to have him in the South African fold,” said Majola.
“His services will be invaluable to CSA’s mission of grooming quality cricketers to enter into the national setup, as well as identifying and streamlining potential young cricketers.”
Barnes’ first assignment in his new position will be as coach of the South Africa ‘A’ team, that will play against Zimbabwe and Australia ‘A’ in a triangular series starting in Zimbabwe next week.
“This new position will not only give me the opportunity to re-establish myself as a head coach, but to also use my eight years of international experience to help develop up and coming players,” said Barnes.
He will also coach the Emerging Players squad to tour Australia later this year.
Barnes will also be tasked with monitoring and identifying cricketers at crucial levels of development in the country (South African u19 and the CSA Academy). — Sapa