The new red-ball coach will have to stabilise a brittle batting line-up. His white-ball counterpart will try to inject urgency and creativity.
Telford Vice / Cape Town
SOUTH Africa are set to put their faith in Shukri Conrad and Rob Walter to get their men’s team out of the doldrums. Cricbuzz understands CSA will unveil the pair as coaches of the red-ball and white-ball sides on Monday.
If that happens, Conrad and Walter will have beat out a shortlist that also featured Lance Klusener — who withdrew from the process on Monday — Malibongwe Maketa, Adrian Birrell and Richard Pybus. They will succeed Mark Boucher, who left the then sole position at the end of the T20 World Cup in Australia November despite having a year left on his contract, to become Mumbai Indians’ head coach.
Conrad is expected to take over the Test team with Walter put in control of the white-ball sides, although which of them will go where could not be confirmed. Neither has been at the helm of a senior international side before, save for Conrad’s stint with Uganda from October 2010 to January 2011.
South Africa are next in action in three World Cup Super League ODIs against England in Bloemfontein from January 27 to February 1. The Test team have two matches scheduled against West Indies in Centurion and at the Wanderers from February 28 to March 12. All of those games are important — South Africa face the unprecedented prospect of having to qualify for the ODI World Cup in India in October and November, and their hopes of reaching the WTC final at the Oval in July are fading.
The South Africans haven’t won any of their last five matches, which include a shock loss to the Netherlands at the T20 World Cup in Adelaide in November, which sent them crashing out of the tournament, and two crushing defeats in the three Tests they played in Australia in December and January. The new red-ball coach will have a job on their hands stabilising a brittle batting line-up, while his white-ball counterpart will be up against it trying to inject urgency and creativity into the team’s approach.
Conrad won four franchise titles with the Lions and Cobras — among them a first-class championship — from 2002/03 to 2009/10. He coached South Africa at the 2022 under-19 World Cup in West Indies in January and February, when his team finished seventh out of 16.
Walter, South Africa’s strength and conditioning expert from 2009 to 2013, claimed three trophies as the Titans’ head coach from 2013/14 to 2015/16. He moved to New Zealand in 2016 to coach the Otago Volts and relocated to the Central Stags before the 2020/21 season. Walter’s kiwi teams haven’t won any titles, but the Volts became more ambitious and successful under his guidance.
Although Conrad and Walter are seasoned coaches, CSA will take a gamble on them. While the team has previously been coached by figures who have not played or coached at significant senior international level, only Russell Domingo — who served as South Africa’s T20I coach during Gary Kirsten’s tenure as head coach and in the latter position from May 2013 to August 2017 — had lower profiles going into the role. Whatever else happens from here for Conrad and Walter, that will change.
Cricbuzz
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