NEW DELHI: South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad acknowledged on Saturday that using the word "grovel" overshadowed his team’s historic Test win over India, though he reiterated there was no “malice” behind it. Conrad made the remark after day four of the second Test in Guwahati when South Africa were dominating, but the term — carrying racial undertones in cricket history — sparked strong reactions.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“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 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 said he will now be more mindful of language used in public spaces.
“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.”
He admitted the controversy diverted attention 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.”
Conrad added that humility remains central to the team’s culture.
“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 expressed regret that South Africa couldn’t secure another series win over India at home after claiming the Test victory.
“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.
"Chance to learn from RoKo"Virat Kohli finished the ODI contest as Player of the Series with two centuries and a fifty, while
Rohit Sharma also contributed with two half-centuries. Conrad said watching them was a learning experience for his young squad.
“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.
Conrad admitted South Africa fell short with the bat in the final ODI.
“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 batters 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.
Finally, Conrad and the team manager confirmed that Tony de Zorzi will miss the upcoming T20I series after suffering a hamstring injury during the second ODI in 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 said.
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