South Africa women’s coach Mandela Mashinbyi has spoken about how the team psychologist Dr Koketjo Tsebe has helped ‘to keep the players cam and focussed’ in the world cup campaign in India.
“Having the psychologist here just helps to keep the players calm and focused. For me, as a coach, I only have to focus on the cricketing side of things.
Dr. Tsebe is giving the players the necessary tools to deal with the pressures of playing in the World Cup, of not being selected, how to deal with anxiety, and so forth,” Mashimbyi told SABC Sport.
South Africa were hammered by England in the first game of the tournament but they rebounded with five successive wins to book a semi-final spot. They had their revenge against England in that game and will now face India in the final at Navi Mumbai on Sunday.
South Africa have already beaten India in the tournament before. And the coach Mashimbyi said he didn’t have to motivate the team for that game.
“To be honest, I didn’t have to motivate the players for the match against India. They were up for that game after the start we had to the competition.
“In the last few games, this team has shown character, and I can’t wait for what is to come.”
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On 31st October he had spoken about his run with the team so far and the challenges he faced initially.
“When I came into the job, the one thing that I picked up was probably the division that was within the team, not necessarily in a malice way but I just thought maybe we could be better in making sure that we are more of a united front as a team,” Mashimbyi said. “Also, certain skills with certain players that I felt needed to improve for us to actually come here and become a force.”
He spoke about his approach during that phase. “What’s important for me was just to always give them love, always give them the care, the energy and be consistent in doing that and I think that builds trust. So, those are the things that I can really speak to now,” the coach.
“We still have a lot to make sure that we champion within the team environment but yeah, the environment for me was probably the most important to make sure that we get that right because the talent that the players have, have always had that’s why we’ve been in finals before. It was just finding that 10 percenter and that 10 percenter for me was in making the environment a lot stronger.”
