Shukri Conrad, South Africa’s Test coach, has hit back at criticism of his team reaching the World Test Championship (WTC) final after a cycle in which they faced neither Australia nor England, and played only 12 Tests. They were the first team to book a spot at Lord’s after they reeled off six successive wins and qualified with a game to spare.
South Africa under coach Shukri Conrad became the first team to make it to the World Test Championship (WTC) Final in the 2023-25 cycle after they beat Pakistan in the Boxing Day Test in Centurion. Notably, the summit clash will be played at the iconic Lords ground. Interestingly, this will be another opportunity for them to win an ICC event that they have not won since the 1998 ICC Knockout Trophy.
Michael Vaughan takes dig at South Africa’s route to the WTC finals enraging SA coach Shukri Conrad.
This was a historic achievement for the South African team but it turns out they still have some experts who are making fun of their journey to the final by saying that they have not won against worthy opponents. In the same vein, the former England Skipper, Michael Vaughan had berated the team saying that they have reached the final on the back of beating nobody, whereas former Aussie spinner Kerry O’ Keefe has compared South Africa’s run to making the Wimbledon final without playing a seed on the way.
South Africa became the first team to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final after winning the Boxing Day thriller against Pakistan in Centurion. South Africa on the back of six consecutive Test wins against West Indies, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan and the seventh against India (in the last Boxing Day Test) in the current cycle have left India and Australia fighting for the only remaining spot, however, a section of critics disregarded it as ‘easy draw’ considering they didn’t play either of Australia, India or England away from home.
However, South Africa’s red-ball coach Shukri Conrad wasn’t apologetic about his team qualifying for the next stage suggesting that it is the biggest thing in this team’s existence and no one can take it away.
However, South Africa’s Head Coach, Shukri Conrad, was seemingly not happy with the statements made by the commentators and has termed them as incorrect and an insult. Quite fascinatingly, he reminded them of how teams who have not done well in the past and were posed as weaker teams ended up beating the likes of India and Australia in their den.
“One of the nobodies we beat won a Test match in Australia – West Indies beat Australia in a Test match, They are not nobody. New Zealand beat India: three-zip in India. New Zealand is not a nobody. Sri Lanka won Test matches [against England and New Zealand]. I don’t buy this thing about us beating nobody.
You tell any side to go and win six on the bounce, in places you haven’t won in a decade and with a young side, with a decimated bowling attack and when you do that, you come back and tell me that we’ve beaten nobody.” Conrad said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
Because of South Africa’s paucity of fixtures – and because they sent an understrength side that lost 2-0 to New Zealand last February – every Test since their tour to the West Indies 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 after an elbow injury, which resulted in them fielding the eighth and 11th least 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 with seven frontline quicks out of action – two (Wiaan Mulder and Gerald Coetzee) mid-Test – and South Africa have had to dig deeply into their reserves. Still, they came up with teams that beat Sri Lanka 2-0 and have now taken the lead against Pakistan.
While Shukri Conrad is proud of that, he understands his team is not the finished product and has repeatedly pointed out areas of improvement. He also acknowledged that “the format is not ideal” because not only do all the teams in the WTC not play against each other in a cycle but teams also don’t play the same number of matches. Each team plays six series in a WTC cycle – three home, three away – which means there are at least two teams on the points table they will not play.
Shukri Conrad has problems with the WTC scheduling
The comments were not the only factor that upset Shukri Conrad. The South African coach Shukri Conrad expressed his displeasure over the way the ICC was scheduling the WTC matches. Shukri Conrad pointed out how the Rainbow Nation did not play some of the teams at all during the two-year cycle.
The number of matches in each series is also agreed on by the individual boards. While India, Australia and England scheduled five-Test series against each other, Cricket South Africa chose only two-match series for this cycle as a cost- and time-saving measure and Shukri Conrad hopes that will change.
The uneven number of fixtures is also why the WTC table is based on percentage points rather than actual points. As things stand, South Africa have won seven of 11 Tests in the cycle and have a winning percentage of 66.67%. Even if they lose the New Year’s Test to Pakistan, their percentage of 61.11 will be enough to see them finish in the top two. Shukri Conrad believes this is as fair a way of ranking the teams as there can be.
“What do I say to the people who are jumping up and down Look, with the little bit of math I did, percentages are probably the ideal way of working it out. Let’s assume we play 12 [Tests] now and we win six, then we end up with 50%. Because some other teams play 20 Tests, is it okay for them to lose 10 and be the same. You still have to win more than you lose and get your percentages up, irrespective of who you play against,” Conrad concluded.
Vaughan also concluded that South Africa “decided Test match cricket wasn’t quite as important” when they took a second-string team to New Zealand and insisted their frontline players fulfilled contractual obligations to the SA20. At the time, Steve Waugh wondered if South Africa’s actions would be a “defining moment in the death of Test cricket”, but Conrad viewed it pragmatically.
“The SA20 has to happen because it is the lifeblood of South African cricket,” he said last January.
“If it doesn’t happen, we are not going to have Test cricket anyway. We’ve got to find a way to coexist with the league, we’ve got to co-exist with leagues around the world to ensure the sustainability of the game.”
The third season of the SA20 will begin on January 9; the tournament has turned a profit for the last two years. CSA, as majority shareholders, has been paid dividends in the tens of millions of Rands and that is only expected to grow.
This year the scheduling of the SA20 means that South Africa will not have their strongest side available to them for an ODI tri-series in Pakistan ahead of the Champions Trophy. CSA has promised there will not be any further clashes with the SA20 and bilateral cricket, which includes England’s inbound tour in the 2026-27 season.
That Test series will form part of the 2025-2027 cycle of the WTC, in which South Africa will play both England and Australia (also at home) in three-Test series each, after travelling to Pakistan and India later this year. Even if South Africa lose the Cape Town Test, their place has already been sealed. It’s now between India, Australia and Sri Lanka for the remaining spot.