Shukri Conrad bites back at Michael Vaughan’s criticism about South Africa beating “nobody” en route to the WTC Final.
Shukri Conrad, South Africa’s Test coach, has hit back at criticism of his team reaching the WTC final.
South Africa played a cycle in which they only played 12 Test matches and did not play either Australia or England. They won six straight games and qualified with one game remaining, making them the first team to secure a spot at Lord’s.
“I’m never going to apologise for getting into the final,” Conrad told ESPNcricinfo at Newlands, ahead of the second Test against Pakistan. “It’s the biggest thing in this team’s existence. It’s the biggest thing for South African cricket at the moment. Is the biggest thing for Test cricket, for world cricket, where the right noises are going to start being made.”
Former Australia spinner Kerry O’Keeffe compared South Africa’s run to “making the Wimbledon final without playing a seed on the way,” while former England captain Michael Vaughan on Fox Cricket said that South Africa reached the final “on the back of beating pretty much nobody” and that they don’t “warrant being in the World Test Championship final with whom they have played over the last two years.”
For Conrad, that is both incorrect and an insult to the opposition South Africa faced. “One of the nobodies we beat won a Test match in Australia – West Indies beat Australia in a Test match,” Conrad said. “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 is pleased of that, but he has consistently identified areas for development since he knows his team is not the final product. Additionally, he admitted that “the format is not ideal” because teams in the WTC do not play each other in a cycle and do not play an equal amount of matches. In a WTC cycle, each team plays six series—three at home and three away—so at least two teams on the points table will not play.
“Hopefully, the ICC is going to take control, whoever is going to take control, make it more even or more fair. But I’m not going to sit here and apologise.”