Domingo questions Proteas' workloads

South Africa coach Russell Domingo says he is concerned about the workload of star players including AB de Villiers, but won’t consider resting the Proteas skipper from an upcoming series against New Zealand.

Arriving home from the ODI tri-series in the Caribbean, Domigo said he believed the heavy workloads of his players – including captain de Villiers – were to blame for his team's failure to reach the final.

The disappointment in the West Indies followed a group stage exit at the World T20 in India earlier this year.

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Domingo called on Cricket South Africa to look at managing the amount of cricket played outside of the international schedule, believing the impact of juggling South Africa commitments with T20 competitions – particularly for the likes of de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla, who play all three formats for the Proteas – was starting to show.

"This loss comes on the back of our top players playing too much cricket," Domingo said.

"It's a big concern for me. It's one of the points I need to highlight with my superiors when I get time to sit down and chat to them.”

Of South Africa's 15-man squad for the tri-series, 11 were part of the World T20 squad, nine are Test regulars, 10 played in the IPL, six have stayed in the Windies on for the Caribbean Premier League and two others will go to England for the County Championship.

One of the most in-demand Proteas is de Villiers, who last week put his hand up for his performances throughout the ODI tri-series; scores of 31, 22, 39, 27 and 2 a return well below his usual high standards.

It was the first time since they faced England in August 2008 that de Villiers - currently captain in all three formats - had not posted a score of 50 of more in a series consisting of at least three matches.

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Domingo said while he would not consider resting de Villiers for South Africa’s two-Test series against New Zealand in August.

"He's the captain, he'll be the first name down on the sheet to play Tests against New Zealand. I spoke to him two days ago planning the workload. It is a concern.

"Some players around the world play all these tournaments but don't play all the formats.

"Our players - Hashim, AB, Faf, Quinton, Morne, JP - they play all the formats and then play a lot of outside leagues as well so that is a big problem for us. But if AB is fit, he should be good to go for the Test series."

Domingo said workloads were an ongoing challenge, making it difficult for his team to produce consistent performances.

"The desire and the hunger levels when you are playing day in and day out will wane at some stage. There's no doubt about that. You can't give 100 per cent to ten different teams for ten months. Something's got to give.

"The big challenge for me is making sure that international cricket is still the main priority for our players. There are lot of tournaments, a lot of money to be made, a lot of opportunities for players to get out there and market themselves so I need to be making sure we focus really hard on our No.1 priority and that is representing our country."

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Paceman Dale Steyn was rested for the ODI tri-series, instead heading to England to play for Glamorgan, but Domingo said that had been a matter of finding the right balance for the veteran.

"A lot of that thinking was that Dale did need some cricket. We sort of knew that spinners would play a big role in West Indies.

"Having him sit around, not doing too much was not going to benefit him too much. He would probably have gone to the West Indies and been in a similar position to Morne Morkel. I am glad he has gone and played some cricket."