In the journey of life when one reaches crossroads that will determine whether life has been or will be a success or failure, one often gets an opportunity to pause and reflect. It is within this gap between success and failure when one comes across different forms of advice. Often we are told that within this gap lies patience and virtue, courage and wisdom and motivation and character however we believe there in lies the reassuring voice of Geoffrey Toyana like an echo in the mist. We took time off to speak to the first black person to coach a cricket franchise in South Africa, coach of the Bizhub Highveld Lions Geoffrey Toyana.
Toyana is a product of the famous Soweto Cricket Club and was a prolific left-hander with a legendary pull shot. At the start of the 2012-2013 season he took over as coach of the Bizhub Highveld Lions cricket team. Under his guidance, the lions broke a five season-long trophy drought in winning the domestic Twenty20 competition. They also won the one-day cup and finished second on the first class standings to finish off an outstanding first season for Toyana.
We asked him to tell us about his background within the game:
I was born in Orlando East in Soweto and I started playing cricket in 1988. I was forced to play by my dad at the time because as you know in the townships in those days it was quite tough for black people.
I started playing cricket when I was 12, my father also played cricket in the 1960s, he was part of the Black African team that played at the time. My father played in the mines as well when he came from Eastern Cape. It was easier for me to adapt cricket because my dad had played the game as well, so I used to go with him every Sunday to watch him play cricket and I’ve always hated the fact that cricket took so long, as I didn’t understand what sort of game this was that took place for a whole day.
The biggest change in my cricketing career came in the early 2000s when Buthi Khaya Majola came to play for the Soweto Cricket Club. He changed how we thought about the game and how the game was played, so he played a massive role in me pursuing in cricket as a profession.
We asked Geoffrey to tell us about his maiden season as coach at the Lions:
I was quite fortunate to be appointed as the coach. The first thing that I did was to bring the senior players together, these were guys that I had played with, I understood how difficult it is when a new coach comes, as the senior players tend to think that you there just push them out. So it was very important that I improved the relationship with the senior players.
I think it was the right time for me to come in having come into a side that was right at the bottom. I proceeded to win trophies in the first season which were the Twenty20 here at home where we beat the Titans. We had a quality side which had guys like Imran Tahir, Chris Morris and Quintin De Kock with other young up and coming players coming through the ranks.
The scandals surrounding match fixing involving senior Lions players posed a big challenge for Toyana, we were interested in how he dealt with the potential catastrophic effects there off:
All those players and that were implicated were senior players and all of the players are the ones that our young players learnt from. It was quite disappointing at the time as it had occurred mid-season and as such we had to sit down with the boys and tell them that yes it was tough but we had to focus on the game of cricket.
For those young group of players to do so well and get themselves into the final of the Momentum Cup winning the trophy in Cape Town, it was really something that was positive for us as a franchise. This considering that our sponsors were not happy as well as our fans.
Big ups to cricket South Africa, I think they handled the whole saga very well. Even though it’s something that was going to hurt us for many years to come as replacing experience is very difficult. With the younger players coming in now and then getting opportunities that is something that we should move on from and quickly.
We also asked Geoffrey on his views on transformation and cricket and in sport in general. Also with the pending vacancy for the Proteas job, we asked him to give us his thoughts on the opportunity should present itself.
Please watch the full video above to find out what his thoughts were
