Ex-Proteas coach says Morne Morkel needs more team environment backing to be No.One pacer

Johannesburg: Former South African coach Ray Jennings has said that fast bowler Morne Morkel needs more backing from the South African team environment if he is to return to top-form.

Morkel captured 2-20 for the Kolkata Knight Riders against the table-topping Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL) to partially erase the memory of being dropped from the South African Twenty20-team in the T20 Cricket World Cup in March.

According to Sport24, Jennings believes that the lanky pacer could take over as the leading South African bowler within the next few years when Dale Steyn reaches the stage where he might be considering retirement.

However, the former coach said that at the moment, Morkel needs the backing of the system and the South African environment and also needs a bit of help in the packaging of overs, although he added that Morkel has got a unique gift of pace and bounce and is matchless in terms of that 'gift'.