``The idea of a specialist panel was first mooted,'' said UCB managing director Ali Bacher, ``when Hansie Cronje came to me after our Test defeat at Sydney in January and asked me to find somebody who could help his batsmen to play Shane Warne.
``Barry Richards was unfortunately out of the country at the time but, when we could get him, he made a big contribution and this was reflected when we managed to put together a total of more than 500 in the Test at Adelaide. At least 3 of our batsmen - and I don't want to mention any names - handled the legspinner much better as a result of the advice that Barry had given them.
``The appointment of a specialist panel is by no means a criticism of Bob Woolmer or any other of our other senior coaches. It is simply a fact that there is no coach in the world who is an expert on every facet of the game.
``The coaching panel will be available to all our national sides, all our provincial sides as well as the Plascon National Academy. It will be up to the coaches in charge of those sides to call up one of these experts when and as they feel the need. If Natal, for example, want a wicketkeeping coach they could chose between Ray Jennings or Dave Richardson.
``It would not be a one-off affair. One would envisage the coach spending 2 or 3 days with a particular wicketkeeper and then coming back for a follow-up session at a later stage.
``The UCB will pick up the bill for the use of these coaches.
``We will also send some of our specialists to our various national weeks. Schoolboys, for example, often have little idea of captaincy and they would learn a lot from somebody like Eddie Barlow or Trevor Goddard.
``One of the highlights of this project has been the keenness of former players to get involved. Not one person turned us down. They are all keen to be involved in South African cricket still. Some of them have offered to specialise within their own specialist areas. Kepler Wessels, for example, will concentrate particularly on batting against fast bowling while Peter Kirsten is regarded as one of the finest coaches of playing spin bowling.
``This project also keeps our top players close to the game after they have retired, and that is also beneficial to South African cricket.''
The specialist coaching panel is:
Batting: Lee Irvine, Kepler Wessels, Peter Kirsten, Jimmy Cook, Graeme Pollock, Hylton Ackerman.
Fast/medium bowling: Vince van der Bijl, Fanie de Villiers, Allan Donald, Robin Jackman, Solly Chothia.
Spin bowling: Omar Henry, Alan Kourie, Baboo Ebrahim, Rodney Ontong, Pat Symcox.
Outfielding: Jonty Rhodes, Peter Kirsten.
Slip fielding: Eddie Barlow, Brian McMillan, Alan Kourie.
Wicketkeeping: Dave Richardson, Ray Jennings.
Captaincy: Eddie Barlow, Trevor Goddard.