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Shukri Conrad’s comment about wanting India to “grovel” in the Guwahati Test sparked controversy due to its racial history, drawing criticism from Indian fans.
South African coach Shukri Conrad has sparked a controversy.
(PC: AFP)
South African coach Shukri Conrad sparked a bit of a controversy with his post-match press comments about India on Tuesday (November 25). While speaking about his team’s decision to bat for longer than they probably needed in the Guwahati Test, he said they ‘wanted India to really grovel’.
Although grovel could simply mean to tire and show how better they were to the Indians, it carries a few racial connotations. In 1976, England captain Tony Greig emphatically said they wanted to make the West Indian team ‘grovel’ before a series. West Indian captain Clive Lloyd was incensed, saying ‘the word was guaranteed to raise the blood pressure of any black man’, especially because it came from a white South African.
It was seen as racially insensitive given South Africa’s history with apartheid, which saw the majority of the Black African population persecuted for years. Though it’s different coming from Conrad, who is brown and thus among the marginalised communities in the Rainbow Nation, Indian fans didn’t take kindly to it.
Despite taking a 288-run lead in the first innings, South Africa declared after scoring 260/5 in the second. It took crucial time out of the match, leaving them with only four sessions to take ten wickets.
The strategy didn’t prove to be too bad with the Proteas getting two wickets in the last session of the fourth day itself.
“We looked at how best we can use the new ball so that in the morning we’ve still got a new-ish, hard-ish ball,” Conrad later said about delaying the declaration. “What we felt is that when the shadows come across the wicket in the evening, there is something in it for the quick bowlers. We didn’t want to declare to early and not be able to use that. And obviously we wanted India to spend as much time out on their feet out in the field, bat them completely out the game and then say to them ‘well come and survive on the last day and an hour this evening.”
“We know they are not just going to roll over. We’re going to have to be at our very best tomorrow. We wanted India to come out after Lunch and spend time on their feet. Their bowlers spent a lot of time out there. We saw the effects of batting for 2 full days in the first innings. It was never going to be easy for their opening batters to come this evening, especially with the new ball, shadows across the wicket. We felt we could have struck there… If tomorrow evening it comes that we have them 8 down and people say ‘see, told you so’… well, we’ve got to base it on our sound judgement and if that doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t. But I don’t think there is a right and wrong in any of this,” he added.
November 25, 2025, 18:08 IST
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