'Lobbyist' Elgar praises Nkwe for Maketa's Proteas role: 'He has cricket at heart'

It's still way too early to make any judgements about Enoch Nkwe's fledgling tenure as Cricket South Africa's director of cricket, but Dean Elgar believes he's made a good start.

The Proteas' red-ball skipper showered praise on Nkwe for his decision to appoint Malibongwe Maketa as interim coach for the three-Test tour of Australia - the assignment they departed for on Thursday afternoon - despite the feisty left-hander admitting he had lobbied substantially for his inclusion.     

"Mali's been great so far. He's one of the coaches I requested our director of cricket to try and get in as interim coach. I got that right, so that's nice," Elgar said in his typically forthright manner.

Perhaps more importantly, it suggests the lines of communication are, at least for now, in a solid state.

"It's nice to have a director that has cricket at heart and backs the leadership that needs to be backed."

While a white-knuckle trip Down Under has some observers worried that Maketa could be overawed, the 42-year-old was a former assistant national coach under Ottis Gibson and has arguably unparalleled knowledge of the the players of national interest currently on the domestic circuit.  

"We've had a lot of good conversations along the way and Mali's been really fighting for us over the past four or five weeks, which is great to see," said Elgar.

"He's obviously coming in as an interim coach and he understands his role, which is going to be supportive."

The duo's previous working relationship is also a bonus. 

"He understands me as a cricketer, a person and a leader. The brand of cricket is still going to be the positive cricket that I want us to play. But you've got to have some street smarts when you play in Australia," said Elgar.

"But Mali