The true belief of Shukri Conrad
South Africa have always had a steady supply of talented, skilled and experienced players. What they haven’t often had are teams who win under pressure. That narrative has changed under Conrad
How do you coach belief? The question came up during Shukri Conrad’s conversation with reporters at Newlands on Saturday, because it’s difficult not to think that’s what he has done since his appointment as Test coach in January 2023.
“There’s a genuine belief that these guys can do special things,” Conrad said. “We’ve got to remind them all the time. Until it plays out. Then they say, ‘OK, you weren’t just trying to pump our tyres.’
“At every turn we push that belief. And it's not blind belief. It is based on what you see; the character that I know sits in that changeroom. It’s really about how we can get them to believe. I think they get that belief once they go out and do certain things.”
South Africa have always had a steady supply of talented, skilled and experienced players. What they haven’t often had are teams who win under pressure. That narrative has changed under Conrad.
Before he took over, South Africa won just four of their previous 11 series, two of them drawn. Conrad, who has now been in charge for 11 rubbers, has guided them to nine wins and two draws.
Conrad has presided over 23 Tests. South Africa won 17, drew one and lost five. Of their 23 Tests before he arrived South Africa won 11, lost the same number and drew one. Drill a little down and Conrad’s record might be better yet — two of his losses were suffered in New Zealand in February 2024, when South Africa were forced to field a significantly weakened team because of their first-choice players’ SA20 contractual obligations.
At Lord’s in June last year the South Africans beat Australia in the WTC final, their first global trophy since 1998. Last October they drew a two-match series in Pakistan after losing the first Test by 93 runs. The next month they won both Tests in India to claim their first series there in more than 25 years.
On Saturday they sealed a 2-1 win over Australia. They lost by 214 runs at Kingsmead before winning by an innings and 31 runs at St George’s Park despite most of the first two days being washed out. At Newlands they recovered from a first-innings deficit of 100 runs and an effective 40/4 in the second innings to build their lead to 287. Then they dismissed the Aussies for 111 to knock them off the top spot in the ICC rankings and rise to second in the WTC standings.
Do Conrad’s team surprise even him?
“They do. Because we can be awesome one minute and absolutely horrendous the next. But we’re awesome a lot more than we are horrendous.”
It was the press’ idea to talk to Conrad on Saturday. That seemed only fair considering he took on the job of explaining what had gone wrong at Kingsmead, where he invented the term “singlebloodymindedness” as what he wanted to see from his players.
Conrad is never short of pithily deployed words, which he often delivers with a crack of sharp humour. On Saturday he loosed his language with lusty loquaciousness. And why not: the man had earned the right.
How did it feel now that his players had dug deep to turn things around after the first Test?
“A hell of a lot better than losing, I can tell you that much. But what an incredible series. What a turnaround after Durban, especially to fashion what we did in Gqeberha in three days. And then to come [to Newlands] and throw away what was quite an advantage batting first [after Pat Cummins inserted the home side]. That’s not me having a dig … [it’s] getting off to the start we got off to and not really capitalising on that.”
South Africa were 203/1 in their first innings before they lost 9/126 to be bowled out for 329. Australia replied with 429.
“In the end maybe it worked out for the better. But you go 100 behind and effectively 40/4 yesterday morning. And then you think, ‘Well, gosh, if we can get to around 150 [ahead], maybe we'll have something to bowl at. We had two hell of a knocks yesterday from Ricks and Wessie.”
Ryan Rickelton scored 101, Wiaan Mulder made 115, and their stand of 154 had much to do with South Africa reaching a total of 387. Australia’s dismantling, which began at the start of play on Saturday, was completed inside an extended second session.
“I always felt we were favourites coming into this morning. But it needed something special. Who better to get us off to the start we wanted than our Rolls-Royce? He was up and running and over his oil leak from the other morning.”
The Rolls-Royce is Kagiso Rabada, who struggled with an upset stomach in Australia’s first innings. He had Matt Renshaw caught behind and trapped Marnus Labuschagne in front in the first over of Australia’s second innings. By the seventh over, when Rabada had Travis Head caught in the gully to reach 350 wickets in 13,808 balls — the fewest in cricket history — the visitors were reeling at 22/3.
Aside from Josh Inglis’ runout, Simon Harmer took all the other wickets and finished with a career-best 6/16 and his first 10-wicket-haul in Tests. Harmer’s selection ahead of Keshav Maharaj for the second consecutive match had raised eyebrows.
“[Maharaj] understands that it’s for the betterment of the side,” Conrad said. “It’s not about the selection being justified by Simon doing what he did today. It’s what we believed was the right call and we’ve got to live by that. If it wasn’t the right call I would have had to front up to that. But I’ve guessed okay again.”
Temba Bavuma would doubtless agree. On Saturday he told a press conference: “Shuks uses a crazy formula. I keep questioning him to make sure we’re making the right decision. But, whatever decision we make, we back it with 100% conviction.”
Because, as Conrad argued, “you’ve got to continually look at how you can evolve the team. And how we can continually get better. I think the message that lands is that whatever decisions we take will always be for the betterment of the side.”
How was the current team shaping up in that assessment?
“I think we’re getting the best XI on the bus. We’ve just got to find the right seats for them. The important bit is that often you need to be quite malleable as a player.”
Twenty players have made their Test debuts under Conrad, sometimes not in the roles that have earned them their first caps. Marques Ackerman is a case in point. He scored 107 and 60 batting at No. 4 for the Dolphins against Western Province at Newlands in September. In August he made 256 for South Africa A against their Bangladesh counterparts in Pretoria, where he also batted at second drop.
But Ackerman made his Test debut as Aiden Markram’s opening partner against the Australians at St George’s Park. He batted for more than an hour and faced 38 deliveries for his score of six. At Newlands, where he also opened, he scored 95 and 62.
“Akie has come in and taken [to Test cricket] like a duck to water,” Conrad said. “He's still going to mess things up because of the way he plays. If he was on 95 again, how would he go about it?”
Ackerman denied himself a first century by charging Nathan Lyon, who saw him coming and fired the ball wider to engineer a stumping.
“That innings was vintage Marcus. He’s a character I don’t want to stymie in any way. I don’t want to curb his way of playing cricket.”
Were South Africa the finest side in the game?
“You never want to walk around saying you’re the best. That comes with a sense of knowing. It’s not for me or anyone to puff out their chest and say we’ve done this, that and the other. It was always about how we’re going to get to the top and remain at the top for an extended period of time. I’m not into proving people wrong. I only look after that changeroom and instil the belief that they can do what they can and what they have done.”
Was this South Africa’s best version of themselves?
“There are one or two things that will make us that. But, my gosh, I wouldn’t have thunk a couple of days ago that we’d stand here. But I’m also not surprised in the same breath because that lot up there [he jerked his head towards the dressing room], soon to start celebrating, they have it in them to do amazing things.”
The head coach of the world’s No. 1 team — a position they haven’t held since January 2016 — spoke standing near The Oaks on Newlands’ eastern boundary. That gave him a good view of Table Mountain in the distance to the west.
“There’s a reason why the air is rarefied up at the top of the mountain — because it’s the highest peak. Once you reach it you want to stay there as long as you can.”
After all that he had the temerity to offer: “I say very little [in the dressing room]. It’s all about reading the room. I hate speaking for the sake of speaking, although it might sound as if I enjoy the sound of my own voice.”
He took a breath and allowed himself a cheeky smile: “I’m good value today. I think that’s what winning does.”
And winning is what belief does.
