New South Africa coach Ottis Gibson says his goal is to take the Proteas back to number one in the rankings and of course win that elusive first World Cup title.
Gibson was unveiled by Cricket South Africa (CSA) at a press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday and spoke about how he would like to use the senior Proteas players to drive performance.
The former England bowling coach won a world title when was head coach of the West Indies team that triumphed at the World T20 in Sri Lanka in 2012.
Gibson told reporters: “I’m lucky in a sense because the Proteas have been to No 1 in the world on a few occasions.
“We have people in the team who know what it takes to get to No 1. The key now is to see if those guys still have the passion to get that back.
“We have quality senior players, but are those quality senior players invested in getting back to the top again?
“If they are then we’ve got a great platform. That is my philosophy for the next two years – taking the Proteas back to the top of the pile and then winning the World Cup.”
First up for Gibson and the Proteas is a two-match Test series at home against Bangladesh, starting in Potchefstroom on 28 September,
Gibson stressed that they must not underestimate the challenge of the Tigers ahead of busy summer of cricket for the Proteas with India and Australia set for incoming ours.
The 48-year-old Gibson continued: “We shouldn’t think that the Bangladesh series is an easy one. They’re going be tough and we must be ready for that.
“We haven’t played a lot of cricket. We need to make sure we’re up to speed with the Bangladesh series.”
