'I don't agree that we can't beat anyone' - South Africa coach Shukri Conrad responds to Michael Vaughan

Thank you ConradSouth Africa’s Test coach has hit back at criticism of his team reaching World Test Championship (WTC) finals after a cycle in which they faced neither Australia nor England and played only 12 Tests. They were the first team to book a place at Lord’s after registering six consecutive wins and qualifying with a game to spare.

“I’ll never apologize for getting to the final,” Conrad told ESPNcricinfo at Newlands ahead of the second Test against Pakistan. “This is the biggest thing in the existence of this team. This is the biggest thing for South African cricket at the moment. This is the biggest thing for Test cricket, for world cricket, where the right noise is going to start.”

Former England captain michael vaughan Fox Cricket said that South Africa reached the final having “beaten almost nobody” and that they were “not guaranteed to be in the World Test Championship final that they have played in the last two years”, while former Australia spinner Kerry O’Keeffe South Africa’s performance was described as “like reaching a Wimbledon final without playing a single player along the way”.

For Conrad, this is wrong and also an insult to the opposition faced by South Africa. “One of the guys we beat won a Test match in Australia – the West Indies beat Australia in a Test match,” Conrad said. “They are nobody. New Zealand beat India: Three-zip in India. New Zealand are nobody. Sri Lanka wins test match [against England and New Zealand]I don’t agree that we are not defeating anyone. You tell any team to go and win six matches on the bounce, at venues where you haven’t won in a decade and with a young team, with a weak bowling attack and when you do that, you come back. And they tell me that we have won and not beaten anyone.”

Due to South Africa’s lack of fixtures – and because they sent a weak team that had lost 2–0 to New Zealand the previous February – every Test since the West Indies tour in August was almost a must-win. South Africa won that series 1-0. Then, they went to Bangladesh where captain Temba Bavuma could not play due to an elbow injury, resulting in them fielding the eighth and 11th lowest capped teams in the cycle, but they won their first series in the subcontinent in a decade.

The home summer has been marred by bowling injuries that have resulted in a poor performance with seven front-line fast bowlers out of the field – two (Wian Mulder and Gerald Coetzee) in the middle Tests – and South Africa have had to draw from the depth of their reserves. . Still, they brought teams that defeated Sri Lanka 2-0 and now take the lead against Pakistan.

While Conrad is proud of this, he understands that his team is not a finished product and has repeatedly pointed out areas for improvement. He also admitted that “the format is not ideal” as not only do not all the teams in the WTC play against each other in a cycle but the teams also do not play the same number of matches. Each team plays six series in the WTC cycle – three at home, three away – which means there are at least two teams in the points table that will not play.

The different boards also agree on the number of matches in each series. While India, Australia and England had scheduled five-Test series against each other, Cricket South Africa chose only a two-match series for this cycle as a cost and time-saving measure and Conrad hopes that it will change.

“Hopefully, the ICC is going to take control, whoever takes control will make it even more or more fair. But I’m not going to sit here and apologise.”

The uneven number of fixtures is why the WTC table is based on percentage points rather than actual points. As things stand, South Africa have won seven out of 11 Tests in the cycle and have a win percentage of 66.67%. Even if they lose the New Year Test to Pakistan, their 61.11 per cent will be enough to get them a top two finish. Conrad believes this is as fair a way of ranking the teams as can be.

“What do I say to people who are jumping up and down? Look, from the little math I’ve done, percentages are probably the ideal way to figure it out. Let’s say we play 12 [Tests] Any more and we win six, so we end up with 50%. Because some other teams play 20 Tests, is it okay for them to lose ten and stay that way? You’ve still got to win more than you lose and get your percentage up, no matter who you play.”

“One of the ones we beat won a Test match in Australia – West Indies beat Australia in a Test match. They’re nobody. New Zealand beat India: Three-zip in India. New Zealand are nobody”

Thank you Conrad

Vaughan also concluded that South Africa “decided that Test match cricket was not that important” when they took a second-row team to New Zealand and insisted that their frontline players fulfill contractual obligations to SA20. In those days, Steve Waugh was surprised If South Africa’s actions would be “a defining moment in the death of Test cricket”, Conrad saw it pragmatically.

“SA20 has to happen because it is the lifeblood of South African cricket,” he said last January“If that doesn’t happen, we won’t be able to play Test cricket anyway. We have to find a way to co-exist with the league, we have to co-exist with leagues around the world to ensure its sustainability.” game.”

The third season of the SA20 begins on 9 January; The tournament has been profitable for the last two years. As majority shareholder, CSA has been paid dividends in the millions of rand and are expected to rise.

The SA20 schedule this year means South Africa will not have their strongest squad available for the ODI tri-series in Pakistan before the Champions Trophy. CSA has promised there will be no further conflicts with SA20 and bilateral cricket, including the inbound tour of England in the 2026–27 season.

That Test series will form part of the 2025-2027 cycle of the WTC, with South Africa playing three-Test series each against England and Australia (also at home), followed by trips to Pakistan and India later this year.

The full interview with Shukri Conrad will be published on January 6.

Firdoz Munda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa and women’s cricket correspondent

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