The Biggest Man In Cricket sits down with former Proteas assistant coach Vincent Barnes to talk about two generational talents in Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Herschelle Gibbs.
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“I absolutely don’t coach him. All I have to do with him is make sure the rest of the team understands how he’s going to play because he is such an individualist.”
Those are the words, not from a cricket coach, but from Stormers head coach John Dobson when asked about his star flyhalf, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Put those same words into the mouth of former Proteas head coach Mickey Arthur and he easily could have been talking about Herschelle Gibbs after another mind-bending, match-defining performance at the top of the order.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu is Box Office; the kind of player people pay to watch because they know they might witness something extraordinary. He’s the kind of athlete who leaves spectators collectively shaking their heads in disbelief at what they have just seen.
At the height of his playing career, Gibbs was exactly the same.
Ironically, Gibbs himself could easily have become a Western Province flyhalf long before Feinberg-Mngomezulu arrived on the scene had he chosen rugby over cricket after school. Instead, South African sport was gifted one of the most naturally-talented cricketers the game has ever produced. Mercurial in talent, occasionally chaotic off the field, but utterly magnetic to watch.
In my most recent interview with former Proteas assistant coach Vincent Barnes, he retold the now famous story of having to pull Gibbs out of a bar in the early hours ahead of THAT iconic 438 game against Australia at the Bullring in 2006.
Despite the lack of sleep and a few obvious indulgences, Gibbs produced one of the great innings in cricket history, smashing 175 off 111 balls in a performance forever etched into South African sporting folklore.
But as Barnes explained during the interview, what many people forget is the shift Gibbs put in in the field before he even picked up a bat. It could have been far more than 434 runs to chase down had it not been for Gibbs’ fielding.
“You think it’s all this natural ability, but his work-ethic and his detail is magnificent. He spends a lot of time previewing the opposition, looking at what their triggers are.”
Again, not Barnes talking about Gibbs, but Dobson talking about Feinberg-Mngomezulu. Yet the parallels remain striking.
Barnes himself could not have spoken more highly about Gibbs’ preparation and commitment when it mattered most.
“The one thing I know about Gibbs from my time with the Proteas was how hard he worked. He worked exceptionally hard. Leading into World Cups, he would stop drinking six weeks before and just work damn hard. All he wanted was that gold medal around his neck.”
Two generational talents. Different sports, different personalities, different eras. But the one constant with players who possess genuine X-factor is that coaches eventually realise it becomes less about over-coaching and more about man management.
The temptation with gifted athletes is always to overcomplicate things; to flood them with technical information, systems and structure. But the best coaches understand that what makes these players special is often the very thing that cannot be coached in the first place … freedom.
That instinctive ability to see moments before everybody else does. To try things others would never dare attempt. To play without fear.
Of course they will frustrate you at times. Players capable of brilliance are also capable of the occasional moment of madness and the errors they will inevitably make will be analysed for days on end. But perhaps that frustration only exists because the expectation is greatness. And when greatness arrives, as it so often does with players like Gibbs and Feinberg-Mngomezulu, there are few better feelings in sport than being there to witness it live.
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