Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter says he has found a way to use the African Nations Championship (Chan) and the Cosafa Cup to his advantage rather than to keep treating the two tournaments as an inconvenient part of the international calendar.

The two tournaments are not played on dates designated by Fifa for international games and given that clubs are not obliged to release players‚ frustrated Bafana coaches have often resorted to selecting players who wouldn’t ordinarily be allowed to come within 100 meters of a national team shirt.

But Baxter says he’s found a way to make the two unwanted tournaments work for SA.

‘‘I think we have found at least a way that we can approach Cosafa and Chan and it will serve South African football rather than we just keep picking these random teams of win some and lose some‚” he said.

Bafana beat Botswana 1-0 in Rustenburg on Saturday in the two-legged Chan qualifier and won the tie 3-0 on aggregate after winning 2-0 in the first leg in Francistown on July 15. They will play Zambia in the next round.

Rather than send out squads of players who are unlikely to be selected again in the future‚ Baxter sent out call-up letters to young players and gave some of them priceless international experience.

‘‘I think that the South African public have been a little apathetic with their view of Cosafa and Chan‚” Baxter said.

‘‘But they have a right to be also because we never really placed it anywhere in our program.

‘‘We sort of picked a random team‚ pitched up‚ sometimes it’s gone okay‚ sometimes it’s been rubbish and we’ve sort of said ’okay let’s move on‚ let’s get to the serious stuff’.

‘‘What we have tried to do now is to put it somewhere‚ where it serves South African football.

“The younger ones have thrown their hats in the ring‚ but are they ready now? No‚ they are not.

‘‘But we have Zambia now and the young ones will get a couple of international games.”

The Chan tournament is considered as the poorer stepsister of the more glamorous African Nations Cup and previous Bafana coaches treated it as an irritation rather than as an asset.

The Cosafa Cup is viewed in a similar light and national team coaches have to beg for personnel.

But the two events are not going to go away and Confederation of African Football president Ahmad of Madagascar recently dismissed suggestions that the much-maligned competitions should be scrapped from the continental calendar.

Ahmad said while the two tournaments are not played on dates designated by Fifa for international games and give national team coaches selection headaches every year‚ they are not going anywhere. — TimesLIVE