South Africa cricket team’s assistant coach Enoch Nkwe has resigned from his position after being sidelined from the decision-making process and for being treated as a cone boy. If reports are to be believed, he will not be traveling with the team to Sri Lanka for the limited-over series scheduled to take place from September 2 to 14 in Colombo
“TimesLIVE can exclusively reveal that Nkwe has quit the Proteas and stated in his resignation letter that the working environment within the team management has become a contaminated space for him to continue to work in,” a South African media house reported.
Quoting sources, the media house further said that Cricket South Africa has refused to accept the resignation of the former Lions player and coach, citing that is a grave matter, and has summoned the coach for a meeting with the board members.
“The board, after hearing of his resignation refused to accept it and instead summoned the assistant coach to come and state his case before them, because his reasons for leaving are serious and very concerning,” the report quoted a source as saying.
Nkwe, who was appointed as head coach of the team after a disastrous 2019 World Cup, headed the team only for its India tour where the Proteas lost the Test series 0-3 and drew the T20I series 1-1 with a comparatively new set-up.
He was demoted right after to the position of assistant coach, and Director of Cricket of CSA, Graeme Smith appointed his former teammate Mark Boucher instead.
The 38-year-old Nkwe was once again not part of the team’s West Indies tour in May-June this year. The reason offered by CSA was that Nkwe was on a family responsibility leave. But now as things are developing, it seemed there were other hidden reasons.
“Nkwe feels that his inputs as an assistant coach are not valued and taken into consideration. He feels he has been reduced to being a ‘cones boy’. He does not feel he is part of the team,” the report said.
The South Africa team would leave for Sri Lanka on August 25.
CSA on its part said accepted that Nkwe indeed approached them with his resignation letter. "Nkwe has indeed signaled an intention to resign, and this matter is being considered by the Board. A further statement will be made when these consultations have been concluded," said the CSA in its statement.