Kamal Ghorui
When India face South Africa in their Super Eights clash of the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on February 22, few supporters will feel more divided than Mariana Morkel.From her home in Pretoria, Mariana will find herself torn. Her elder son, Albie Morkel, represented South Africa in one Test, 58 ODIs and 50 T20Is and is now serving as a consultant coach with the Proteas in the ongoing tournament. Her younger son, Morne Morkel, who played 86 Tests, 117 ODIs and 44 T20Is for South Africa, is India’s bowling coach.
Speaking ahead of South Africa’s Group D match against the UAE at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Albie was asked if he had exchanged notes with Morne. “No, we don’t talk to each other. I think my mother, she’s more worried than us. She doesn’t know who to support, India or South Africa.”With the Proteas already through to the Super Eights, Albie stressed that the bigger challenge lies ahead.“I think the World Cup really starts now, even though we had a tough group. Now you face India, possibly Australia or Zimbabwe and the West Indies in our group. So it’s really tough. It’s going to be all good games. Yes, there will be more pressure on those games because as you move later towards the playoffs.“But I feel we’ve got a very experienced group of bowlers and batting is better so guys that have been exposed to that whether it’s an IPL or other leagues or in international cricket is a little bit different. But guys that can handle that pressure – they actually will thrive in those circumstances where there’s a bit more pressure on the games – so not too worried,” he added.Cautious about raising expectations after a runners-up finish in 2024, he said, “I don’t like to make statements about it. I think we were in a very tough group. That game against Afghanistan still gives me nightmares and it could have gone anyway.“So now I guess the first box is ticked – getting through to the next stage. To me, the World Cup starts now. Every game will be a tough game, and luckily we’ll be in Ahmedabad again where we sort of are used to the conditions now – so, let’s see.”Brought into the South African setup specifically for this tournament, Albie previously worked as Namibia’s assistant coach and as Bangladesh’s power-hitting coach. Reflecting on his current role, he said, “It’s been an interesting term, a specialist consultant. I had to figure it out myself a little bit. But I guess it’s anything it takes to help the team do well in the World Cup. So do a bit of both, batting, and fielding, mostly focus around the bowling for now and do some work with the lower order batters, around their swing and stuff like that.”Now viewing the game from the sidelines, he also spoke about shaping his coaching philosophy, influenced heavily by Stephen Fleming during his stint with Chennai Super Kings.“Initially when I started my coaching career, you still coach as a player. If you want to make a difference, but you can’t be on the field and you have to accept that fact and work out ways because players are under pressure anyway. If you as a coach want to make a difference in their games all the time, that doesn’t help anyway.“So it’s sort of finding that middle ground where you try to help, but you’re also not, as a coach, put pressure on players as they know what they’re doing. If it’s real technical things, then you can work at it, but not during tournament.“My philosophy is once you hit a World Cup like this and you start to tinker with technical stuff, that’s when you confuse players or players can get confused. So it’s more like how can I actually take pressure off guys, make them believe in themselves, and stuff like that? Stephen has been a big influence on that.“He’s one of the only coaches, or maybe the only coach in the world who’s been at a franchise for 17 years. That’s unheard of and it must mean he does something right. I’ll certainly learn a lot from him, yes,” he concluded.
