Coach Walter leads SA to promised land of WC final

After years of high profile coaches, it is the relatively unknown Rob Walter who stands on the brink of South African cricket history as he prepares his side for their first ever World Cup final.

The Proteas booked their place in the T20 final with a brutal defenestration of Afghanistan and will now face India in Barbados on Saturday.

Walter is the antithesis of that ‘high profile’ coach -- he was never a star player, he stays resolutely grounded in interviews and if he is prone to outbursts of raw emotion he does not put them on public display.

Just one journalist attended his press conference for that semi-final.

The previous 12 South African white-ball coaches include such storied names as Mike Procter, Bob Woolmer and Mark Boucher and yet it is the 48-year-old Walter who has succeeded in shaking off the “choker” tag that dogged a side that could reach semi-finals but no further.

Walter said he believed the team had already overcome their biggest psychological hurdle.

“Getting through the semi-final, not having done that before, came with its own pressure,” he told AFP.

“Even against the West Indies (in a crucial Super Eight match), that was effectively a quarter-final.

“Now that they’ve done that I’m just hoping the guys will go out, play freely and express themselves.”

If they do that successfully it will be a significant triumph for Walter, whose playing career peaked at schoolboy provincial level and who had only been involved in coaching at age group level before becoming South Africa’s strength and conditioning coach in 2009, a position he held in 2013.

The recommendation of previous national coach Gary Kirsten helped Walter land a job as head coach of the Titans, South Africa’s most successful franchise.

The team won three titles in three seasons, leading to head coach positions with Otago and Central Districts in New Zealand.

He was appointed South African white-ball coach in January 2023 and has brought a calm to the dressing room, although he admits that outward appearances do not tell the whole tale.

“I wouldn’t say there aren’t emotions deep inside but there’s a calmness required on the side of the field,” he said. “I try not to get too emotionally attached to the result, more to concentrate on how we prepare.”

The results, though, have all gone South Africa’s way with eight successive wins, several of them nail-bitingly close. Walter has high praise for captain Aiden Markram, who he describes as “very level-headed, very calm,” with a tactical astuteness that has enabled him to make crucial decisions under intense pressure.

Given that his team have played on untypical and unpredictable pitches, Walter said they would not have any pre-conceived ideas about what to expect in Barbados.