NEW DELHI: South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad acknowledged on Saturday that his use of the word “grovel” overshadowed his team’s landmark Test win over India. He insisted, however, that the comment carried no “malice” and was never meant to offend.
Conrad’s remark, made after the fourth day of the second Test in Guwahati when the Proteas were in a dominant position, sparked controversy due to the term’s racial undertones and quickly ignited debate.
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“I think on reflection, it was never my intention to cause any malice or not be humble about anything. How could I have chosen a better word on reflection? Yeah, I could have been smarter,” Conrad said in the post-match press conference in Visakhapatnam after the third ODI.
“It (the word) left it open to people putting their own context to it, where the only context I ever intended it to be was for India to spend a lot of time and make it really tough for them,” he added.
Conrad stated that he will be more careful with his choice of words in the public domain from now on.
“I’m going to be careful what word I use here now, because context would be attached to that as well. It’s really a pity. Maybe what it did do was to spice up the ODI series, especially with them winning that now, the T20 series becomes even more so.”
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Conrad recognized that the controversy shifted attention away from South Africa’s first Test series win over India in 25 years.
“The unfortunate thing is, with all the noise that word caused, I don’t think it’s a perfectly good English word, but like I said, it just left it open to too many interpretations.
“What it did was take away the gloss of what was a really special win for our Test team. It’s unfortunate, but like I said, there was definitely no malice intended.”
The 58-year-old said the core principle of the South African Test team is to remain humble even amid some tall achievements.
“Being humble is a cornerstone of our Test team and all our teams for that matter. It’s unfortunate that the noise and the talk became around the coach.
“People shouldn’t even know who the coach is. It should be about the players. That’s the unfortunate bit and I’d like to think that it’s going to be put to bed now,” he said.
“We missed a special chance”
Conrad also rued that SA missed a golden chance to inflict another series defeat on India at home after winning the Test rubber recently.
“Yes, we had a chance to do something really special,” he said.
“I think the last time India lost both the Test and ODI series goes back to the 1990s. We missed out on that opportunity. But look, they’re a world-class side with world-class players.
“When Rohit (Sharma) is in this type of form, you cannot afford to yield your game. But like I said, part of this is building towards 2027, the World Cup in South Africa. I’d like to think that a few things are starting to fall into place with that. A lot of experience built in you,” he noted.
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Talisman Virat Kohli emerged Player of the Series after scoring two centuries and a fifty in the three-match ODI series, and Rohit too had his moments, making two fifties.
Conrad said it was an experience for a young South African side to watch two masters in action and learn from them.
“Therein lies the learnings for us, for our young batters to see what the world’s best does, i.e. Virat and Rohit, how they go about their business. And I’d like to think that we will take that learning with us and then grow from there, especially our younger batters,” he said.
Overall, Conrad admitted that SA batters failed to post a big enough total in the third ODI here and put the home side under pressure.
“I’d like to think that we were a little bit short with the bat. We started off really well with the ball, but because we didn’t post a score big enough, the Indian opening batsmen didn’t have to take any risks and they put us under pressure.
“But I think we let ourselves down with the bat. We needed to post something a lot more competitive to put India under pressure. But, such are the margins when two equally matched teams are up against each other, (and) when one team is slightly off,” he said.
Conrad and South African team manager together revealed that middle-order batsman Tony de Zorzi will not take part in the upcoming T20I series after suffering a hamstring injury during the second ODI at Raipur.
“He was out earlier today, so he was out of the T20 series as well. Yeah, it’s really tough. Obviously, we were, I guess I should use the term hamstrung. But we were hamstrung by Tony’s injury,” they added.
(With PTI Inputs)
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