Dale Steyn has another couple of years left in him: Russel Domingo

Bengaluru, August 10: Russel Domingo has seen bright and dark days as coach of South Africa after taking over from Gary Kirsten. After a rather tumultuous tenure with the senior team, Domingo is now settled in his role as the South Africa A coach and preparing young talents for top flight cricket.

MyKhel caught up with Domingo, who is here as the coach of visiting South Africa A, for a quick chat with a range of issues including the impending return of Dale Steyn and the rise of young names in South Africa cricket.

At one stage, India A were reduced to 80/3 and but let the Indians go off the hook as the hosts ended the first day with a 300-plus total. How do you view the day?

I thought we bowl well today. But bit unfortunate that the Indian batters stuck in there. I thought if we got a couple of more wickets when they were 80 for three we would have been in the game much more at this point. But I am happy with the way our bowlers went ahead especially Dunanne Olivier...they were pretty consistent throughout the day.

South Africa A and Cricket South Africa coach...how is your new roles shaping up?

It has been coming through very well, fantastic to see some future South African players coming up. It's a challenging task to prepare them for possible international assignments in future, identify them and make them move up the ladder and I am enjoying this particular role.

Stumps Day 1: India A - 322/4 in 89.6 overs (G H Vihari 138 off 270, K S Bharat 30 off 51) @paytm IndAvSaA #IndiaASeries

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) August 10, 2018

You were the coach of South African national side and when you take a relatively lesser profile job do you need to reinvent yourself as a coach?

It's been nine months since I have taken this role and I am quite enjoying this and I have learned quite a deal during these months. You need to try to improve yourself as a coach, interact with more players and other coaches and tap in and get as much information from them as possible. Really enjoyable. Preparing young players is as much important task as anything else in cricket because the success of your senior side depends on that.

Going back to your coaching days, the South Africa team managed an ODI series win under you in India, brightest achievement?

It was a fantastic effort and certainly some of the brightest days we had as a team. It was a very good series as we came back after losing the Test matches with guys like Faf (du Plessis) and Quinton de Kock guiding the team.

And what about that away series win over Australia...

Against Australia in Australia, yes, that was a brilliant series win particularly in the backdrop of losing a player like AB and (Dale) Steyn was injured. Those were really good times as we produced some good cricket as a team. But life has moved on since.

94 Matches.
A personal high score of 178 runs.
13 Hundreds.
Exceptional, charismatic and brilliant.

Congratulations to @QuinnyDeKock69 on being the 12th #SBProteas batsman to reach 4000 ODI runs. #ProteaFire pic.twitter.com/ceyCLP9qfL

— Standard Bank SA (@StandardBankZA) August 8, 2018

During your tenure, you never really got the sustained services of Steyn and AB de Villiers. Did it hamper you?

I won't say it hampered me. You will always want those kind of players in your team but their absence allowed other players to step in. If you see some really young players stepped in - Rabada made his debut during that time and he's now one of the world's top bowlers. Keshav Maharaj stepped in and he's going to be an important player for South Africa along Dean Elgar, a mentally strong batsman. See, nobody is irreplaceable. Fortunately, the schooling system in South Africa is good and it keeps producing young players.

Now, Steyn is making a comeback to international cricket after a lengthy injury-enforced absence, where do you see him go from here?

I have not watched his bowling a great deal of late. But knowing Dale and the kind of experience and expertise he has...Dale I am sure is hungry for more cricket now and hopefully, he can keep his physical fitness on. I am sure he can continue for another couple of years. He is top bowler and a fantastic team bowler and I have no doubt he will get back to top flight cricket.