The familiar face of coach Tumelo Bodibe will be in the stands at Willowmoore Park in Benoni when the Eastern Cape Iinyathi take on the Eastern Storm, starting from Thursday through Sunday.
However, both will not be wearing the blue and black regalia of Iinyathi as they did last season.
Instead, they will be in the opposite dugout, helping the Storm players through each session and sharing all the technical secrets they know about each player in the Border Cricket outfit.
Classen spent two seasons at the Iinyathi and left five months ago.
Bodibe knows the majority of the Iinyathi squad intimately, and perhaps some of the strategies that Iinyathi head coach Rowan Richards will employ in the 1st Class Shield and Pro50 competition.
Richards was Bodibe’s sidekick at Iinyathi for almost three years.
Prior to that, Bodibe was there at the inception of the Iinyathi rebrand half a decade ago together with Paul Adams, and they built the culture of the KuGompo City side.
About two seasons ago, Bodibe brought Iinyathi’s first silverware by winning the Division 2 50-over competition.
Last season, the Bodibe-Richards combo guided the Iinyathi team to two finals and almost earned promotion to Division 1.
Bodibe had told the Dispatch after last season that he would continue with the job at Iinyathi as there were a few months remaining in his contract.
He said he wanted to push continuity and have another bite at getting Iinyathi promoted, as he felt the squad was among the most mature in the second division.
But surprisingly, he left during the past off-season to become the head coach of the Eastern Storm, with his reasons being personal reasons as he wanted to move closer to his family in Gauteng.
This week, his former family will be in his hometown, Benoni, in what could be a hostile visit on the field.
The mission for Iinyathi is to dominate the Storm in three days of their 1st Class Shield encounter, starting on Thursday morning through Saturday.
They will hope to round it off with a good performance in their Pro50 match on Sunday.
But that will be harder said than done.
The Storm defeated the Garden Route Badgers by five wickets in their opening white-ball game of the season.
They drew in the red-ball campaign in a first-class match affected by rain.
Iinyathi also played to a draw with the red nut but lost in the 50-over competition against the Limpopo Impalas.
In both formats, they suffered a top-order batting collapse despite the bowlers putting in good performances.
Middle-order batter Michael Copeland, who was a standout in that visit to Limpopo, said they have to make sure they build the innings upfront and not leave much of the job with the willow to the middle and lower order.
“Everyone in our team has capabilities. Our top order has to take the responsibility and the bowlers have to just continue hitting their straps with the ball, and everything will fall into place,” he said.