Russell Domingo confirmed that he has reapplied for his job and hopes to continue as Proteas coach.
Months of speculation has now come to an end. With the news that the interview process had finished for the role, Domingo was finally allowed to answer the question of whether he reapplied for the job.
CSA announced a five-man panel including ex-Proteas coaches Gary Kirsten and Eric Simons, to recommend candidates for the coaching job, with the application deadline set on June 16 and interviews which were held last week.
Domingo announced that he hopes to continue as coach of the side post the four-Test series against England, once his contract expires in August.
‘I have forwarded my application form and I have gone through an interview,’ Domingo told ESPN Cricinfo on Monday ahead of the first Test against England which kicks off on Thursday.
The 42-year-old made his intentions clear about how he feels in the role, but has placed the ball in CSA’s court to make the final ruling.
‘It’s a fantastic honour to work with this team.
‘I’ve loved my time with it and hopefully, I can continue. If not, it’s in the best interests of the team.
‘I’ve had a fantastic run and loved every single minute of it. It’s not my decision – it’s up to the board.’
Domingo also shed some light on what made him decide to reapply for the job.
‘No 1 family life is important.
‘No 2 the performance of the team is obviously important; whether you feel you’re the right guy to take the team forward and whether the team is showing signs of improvement in all formats.
‘[No 3] player support is massively important. Those are a couple of things that you have to think about when you do decide to stay on or not, or look to stay on or not.’
He continued to emphasise the importance of having support from your players.
‘The most important support you need is from your players,’ he continued.
‘By the support they’ve shown they’ve enjoyed what we [coaching staff] have offered the team, so that is satisfying to hear.’
It is now up to CSA to make the final decision and Domingo has admitted that a lot of work still has to be done with the team.
‘It’s out of my control, it’s not something I go to bed thinking about, it’s not something that generally affects me. They need to decide whether I’m the right guy to take the team forward.
‘There’s a lot that we still want to achieve with this national side, an ICC event is a big thing to us.
‘We started the process with our Test side, rebuilding it and, we still not where we need to be. We got our rankings up but there’s still a lot of work to be done and we are by no means the complete article in Test cricket.’
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The Proteas will play England in the first of four Tests at Lord’s on Thursday.