The KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union have once again turned to their former coach, Graham Ford, to help them lift the Dolphins out of the mire.
The 2008/09 season was one of their poorest on record with the Dolphins finishing bottom of the first-class SuperSport Series. In March, before the end of the season, evidence of the players' feelings of discontent about their coach, Yashin Ebrahim, began to surface, and the union finally decided to take action.
Since then, talks have been ongoing between the union and Ford, and they culminated in Wednesday's official announcement by the chief executive of the union, Cassim Docrat. Ebrahim has not been completely jettisoned, however, and has been appointed head of the Suncoast Dolphins Academy at Kingsmead.
Ford is serving out the final season of his contract with English county Kent as their Director of Cricket. He will take up the reins as head coach at Kingsmead in September 2009.
"I am excited at the prospect of Graham taking over as head coach as he brings with him a wealth of experience and is familiar with our structures and players," Docrat said.
Ford, 48, has enjoyed a distinguished career as a provincial and international coach. He first took over as coach of the Dolphins in 1992 and, together with captain Malcolm Marshall and talented young players such as Shaun Pollock, Jonty Rhodes, Lance Klusener and Dale Benkenstein, steered the team to the heights, culminating in the first-class and limited-overs double in his final year as coach in 1996/97.
Having served as Bob Woolmer's assistant at the World Cup in 1999, Ford took over the top job as coach of the Proteas, helping them to win eight of the 11 series they played. He lost his job in 2002, however, after back-to-back series defeats against Australia.
Ford has been coach of Kent since 2005 and briefly took over as coach of the Dolphins for the second time the following year, only to quit for personal reasons.
His value as a coach was underlined in 2007 when he was approached to coach India but decided not to accept the job. Earlier in 2009 he was placed on a shortlist to coach England but again declined.
The Dolphins and KwaZulu-Natal cricket have always been close to Ford's heart and it is no secret that he has been looking for a chance to spend more time at home with his wife, Liz, and sons, Matthew and Greg.