South African cricket team coach Shukri ConradImage Credit source: Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images
It was already clear that it was not going to be easy for any team to overcome World Test champion South Africa. But hardly anyone would have thought that the South African team would come to India and stand on the threshold of making a clean sweep. After giving a crushing defeat to India in the Kolkata Test, South Africa is now close to winning the Guwahati Test. This performance has boosted the morale of the South African team and coach. But amidst the enthusiasm and confidence, a statement or rather a word by South African coach Shukri Conrad has created a ruckus.
In fact, on the fourth day of the Guwahati Test match, South Africa declared its second innings at 260 runs and gave a target of 549 runs to Team India. During this, South Africa batted for more than half the time on the fourth day. By the second session of the day itself, South Africa’s lead had increased to more than 480 runs, which was considered sufficient. But surprising everyone, the South African team batted for some time in the last session and then declared the innings.
What did Shukri Konrad say?
Then after the end of the day’s play, when the South African coach was asked about this decision in the press conference, he said that he wanted to tire the Indian team as much as possible. But during this time he used a word which created a ruckus. Conrad said, “Steal a phrase, we wanted them to really grovel, to steal a phrase. We wanted to take them out of the match completely.”
There is an uproar because of this word
Although this seems to be a very general statement, but the word ‘To Grovel’ used by Shukri Conrad is being objected to. In fact, his words refreshed the memories of the controversial statement of former England all-rounder Tony Greig, which had created a huge uproar in 1976. During the England team’s tour of the West Indies, Greg took a dig at the history of the Caribbean country and its black population and said – ‘We Want them to grovel’.
There was a lot of uproar over this because the word grovel means to crawl lying face down on the ground. This statement of Tony Greig came at a time when South Africa had to face worldwide boycott due to apartheid. Greg was a white player of South African origin, who was playing for England. By using this word, he was showing his hatred against black people, who were used for slavery for a long time.
Will BCCI complain about Conrad?
That statement of Tony Greig was condemned everywhere but it infuriated the entire West Indies team. Its effect was also visible on the series, where Greg had to face tremendous sledging from the spectators at every ground in West Indies. Whereas the West Indies team had whitewashed England 3-0. As far as India-South Africa Test is concerned, at present Team India does not seem to be in a position to do anything amazing like West Indies, but whether their board will take any action against the South African coach or BCCI will lodge its complaint, it remains to be seen.