'SA coaches won't give India advantage'

Posted Thursday, February 04, 2010 at 13:41 © MWP

International cricket teams employ a whole network of specialist coaches and technological aids these days, which is why Jacques Kallis says there will be little mystery involved when South Africa take on India in the first test starting in Nagpur on Saturday.

South Africa's legendary all-rounder was dismissing suggestions from the Indian media that the fact their team is now coached by three South Africans - Gary Kirsten, Eric Simons and Paddy Upton - would give the home side some sort of inside information and a telling edge.

"They're three experienced and good coaches, but there is so much technology and video analysis involved in the game these days that everyone knows everybody else's game plans anyway," Kallis said on Thursday.

Which is probably why South Africa have made little effort to conceal the fact they will be looking to tear through the powerful Indian batting line-up primarily through their three plus-140km/h fast bowlers - Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Wayne Parnell.

"We've come up with good plans against the Indian batsmen before. A lot of teams come here and expect to win through spin, but seam and pace has got us a lot more wickets here than people realise. We've had good plans against India in the past and hopefully we can execute them well again," Kallis said.

Kallis the bowler should also not be underestimated and his last five-for came on the sub-continent in a match-winning burst against Bangladesh in Dhaka two years ago.

"I've learnt how to get reverse swing and how to get batsmen out in these conditions, I guess it comes with experience. Hopefully I can play an important role in the attack again because I feel like I'm bowling as well as ever," Kallis said.

There is little doubt South Africa's leading run-scorer is in prime batting form - his last three innings have brought a flurry of runs, with 160 runs off 112 balls in two MTN40 knocks for the title-winning Warriors, 63 lashed off 58 balls in the warm-up game in Nagpur and three centuries in his last five tests

"In the last couple of years I've batted as well as I ever have. I just want to keep improving, keep working hard. The 20/20 game has been brilliant for myself, it's taken my game forward. I'm really enjoying my batting at the moment," Kallis said.

While there is little point crying over the spilt milk of 2009 and the departure of coach Mickey Arthur, Kallis said the team has done some soul-searching in the aftermath.

"We didn't play particularly good cricket in 2009, so we sat down and discussed it and we know where we went wrong. We need to make sure we keep our hunger and keep trying to improve. We need to keep learning and keep moving forward, in international cricket, you can't afford to get stale."

But just to prove that international cricket is not a life and death affair, Kallis expressed his desire to have a beer with Kirsten in the next few weeks.

"Hopefully we can have a beer together at some stage. The days of not mixing with the opposition are long gone. Maybe at the end of the series we can have more than one beer ... we certainly won't be avoiding each other!" Kallis said of his former teammate.