Shukri Conrad, the head coach of South Africa, acknowledged that using the word “grovel” detracted from his team’s historic Test triumph over India, but he insisted that he had no “malice” in mind.
With South Africa headed for a record series whitewash on the fourth day of the second Test at Guwahati, Conrad made the contentious comment, and the word with a racial innuendo sparked much controversy.
“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 on Saturday after the third ODI against India.
“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 promised to use caution going forward while using language in public.
“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.”
Conrad realized that the entire incident detracted from South Africa’s victory over India in the Test series after 25 arduous 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 stated that the South African Test team’s guiding ethos is to maintain humility despite some impressive accomplishments.
“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.
Conrad also bemoaned the fact that, following their recent victory in the Test match, South Africa lost a fantastic opportunity to defeat India in another series at home.
“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.
After reaching two hundreds and a fifty in the three-match ODI series, talisman Virat Kohli was named Player of the Series. Rohit too had his moments, getting two fifties.
According to Conrad, it was an opportunity for a young South African team to observe two masters in action and gain knowledge from them.
“Therein lies the learnings for us, for our young batters to see what the world’s best does, how Virat and Rohit 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 acknowledged that the South African batsmen couldn’t put pressure on the home team by failing to score a significant enough total in this third 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.
After sustaining a hamstring injury during the second ODI at Raipur, middle-order batsman Tony de Zorzi will not participate in the forthcoming T20I series, according to Conrad and the South African team management.
“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.”
