Mother's Dilemma: India vs South Africa in T20 WC as Morkel Brothers Coach Rivals

At her home in Pretoria, Mariana will be torn in supporting either South Africa, the country which Albie Morkel represented as a player in one Test, 58 ODIs and 50 T20Is and is now their consultant coach for the ongoing Men's T20 World Cup or India, where her younger son Morne Morkel, who played for the Proteas in 86 Tests, 117 ODIs and 44 T20Is, serves as their bowling coach.

When asked in the pre-match press conference ahead of their Group D clash against the UAE at the Arun Jaitley Stadium if he's exchanged coaching notes with Morne, Albie said, "No, we don't talk to each other. I think my mother, she's more worried than us. She doesn't know who to support, India or South Africa."

With South Africa already through to Super Eights, Morkel declared that the real tournament will begin now, insisting that the Proteas' passage through the group stage was merely the first box to be ticked on what he expects to be a demanding road to winning the title.

"I think the World Cup really starts now, even though we had a tough group. Now you face India, possibly Australia or Zimbabwe and the West Indies in our group. So it's really tough. It's going to be all good games. Yes, there will be more pressure on those games because as you move later towards the playoffs.

"But I feel we've got a very experienced group of bowlers and batting is better so guys that have been exposed to that whether it's an IPL or other leagues or in international cricket is a little bit different. But guys that can handle that pressure - they actually will thrive in those circumstances where there's a bit more pressure on the games - so not too worried," he added.

The former seam-bowling all-rounder was also careful in not being carried away and thinking that this is the time for the Proteas to go one step further after runners-up finish in 2024. "I don't like to make statements about it. I think we were in a very tough group. That game against Afghanistan still gives me nightmares and it could have gone anyway.

"So now I guess the first box is ticked - getting through to the next stage. To me, the World Cup starts now. Every game will be a tough game, and luckily we'll be in Ahmedabad again where we sort of are used to the conditions now - so, let's see."

Morkel, who was brought into the Proteas setup specifically for this tournament as a consultant coach, had previously been Namibia's assistant coach and was even the power-hitting coach for Bangladesh. He described his time so far in the South Africa set-up as a mix of everything.

"It's been an interesting term, a specialist consultant. I had to figure it out myself a little bit. But I guess it's anything it takes to help the team do well in the World Cup. So do a bit of both, batting, and fielding, mostly focus around the bowling for now and do some work with the lower order batters, around their swing and stuff like that," he said.

As a player, Morkel excelled in dealing with pressure situations. But now with him on the other side of the rope, he spoke thoughtfully about his coaching philosophy which has a lot of influence from how Stephen Fleming has coached Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL. Morkel played for CSK from 2008 to 2013 and won two titles with the franchise.

"Initially when I started my coaching career, you still coach as a player. If you want to make a difference, but you can't be on the field and you have to accept that fact and work out ways because players are under pressure anyway. If you as a coach want to make a difference in their games all the time, that doesn't help anyway.

"So it's sort of finding that middle ground where you try to help, but you're also not, as a coach, put pressure on players as they know what they're doing. If it's real technical things, then you can work at it, but not during tournament.

"My philosophy is once you hit a World Cup like this and you start to tinker with technical stuff, that's when you confuse players or players can get confused. So it's more like how can I actually take pressure off guys, make them believe in themselves, and stuff like that? Stephen has been a big influence on that.

"He's one of the only coaches, or maybe the only coach in the world who's been at a franchise for 17 years. That's unheard of and it must mean he does something right. I'll certainly learn a lot from him, yes," he concluded.

- IANS