South Africa's new head coach Ottis Gibson (formerly bowling coach for the England team) has announced the new staff who will be working with and under him on the Proteas side. In addition to being head coach, Gibson himself will take on the duties of bowling coach. Claude Henderson, specialist spin bowling coach under previous head coach Russell Domingo, will remain to assist Gibson.

Gibson's assistant coach will be Malibongwe Maketa, formerly head coach of both the Northerns (2008-12) and Warriors (2015-2017) sides in South Africa domestic cricket. He has enjoyed success in the limited overs formats with both his prior teams. 

Dale Benkenstein will be the new batting coach. He was head coach of Hampshire County Cricket Club (2014-16) where he too enjoyed limited overs success, especially in T20s. Interestingly, he will split his time between being batting coach of South Africa and head coach of Hilton College, a private school in South Africa which has produced cricketers including Mike Procter and Scotland's Preston Mommsen. 

The formerly neglected post of fielding coach will go to Justin Ontong, a player known for his impressive fielding. This will be the first proper coaching position held by Ontong, who was playing franchise cricket as recently as October of this year.

Gibson's staff will join him and the South African team in earnest after the end of Ram Slam, the domestic T20 tournament. Their first challenge will be the one-off, 4-day Boxing Day Test against Zimbabwe, followed by India's tour of South Africa.

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