JOHANNESBURG - Former Proteas star JP Duminy is among trio of high powered new appointments made by the Central Gauteng Lions Cricket Union, as part of the management of its men's professional side ahead of the 2021/22 season.
Duminy will be the union’s batting ‘lead’ a role that will see him act as batting coach for the Lions, and also advise the women’s team and the province’s under-19s. Wandile Gwavu, who won the CSA Coach of the Year Award in 2019/20, will remain as the province’s head coach in the first season of the new restructured system, that will see domestic cricket revert from the franchise structure to a 15-team provincial system.
Duminy played over 300 matches for the Proteas in an international career that spanned 15 years. He was part of the team that became the first South African side to win a Test series in Australia, starring with the bat in the second Test in Melbourne and continuing to do so in the One-Day series that followed. He retired from international cricket following the 2019 World Cup, and did the odd commentary stint on television.
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The other big name appointment, is Prasanna Agoram, as High Performance Analyst. Agoram played a similar role with the Proteas - a lot of that time when Duminy was part of the team - and was widely praised by the players for his influence with the national side. The Lions’ CEO, Jono Leaf-Wright, confirmed that Agoram would also have an influential role throughout the province as a high performance manager. “He’ll be linking our, schools, clubs, with our pipeline, basically the entire feeder system," said Leaf-Wright.
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The Warriors’, former coach Piet Botha, will be the Lions new bowling coach. He played an influential role in the development of Anrich Nortje, and the Lions will hope he can do a similar role for them
“Our approach has been one of combining experience with fresh faces, an approach that will continue to fill our trophy cabinets while also growing the game across the many spheres”, says Leaf-Wright.
Lions Management
Wandile Gwavu - Head Coach
JP Duminy - Batting Coach
Piet Botha - Batting Coach
Prassana Agoram - High Performance Manager
Kurt Human - Academy/Colts Head Coach.
Shaun Pretorius - Women’s Semi Pro women and Under-19 girls head coach
Siya Sibiya - Under-19 boys head coach.
Teboho Ntsukunyane - Under-16 girls
Minenhle Magubane - Under 16 boys.
IOL Sport