South Africa coach Chief coach Shukri Conrad, center, have discussions with Kesav Maharaj, right and another during the practice session ahead of the first test match between India and South Africa, in Kolkata, India, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo) When Shukri Conrad was playing in the South African school side in the mid-1980s, in his late-teenage years, he would tell his captain, Daryll Cullinan, “I will coach you guys one day.” No one took him seriously. South Africa were still serving the second decade in the wilderness; Nelson Mandela was still in prison; the presence of a boy from Cape Flats, where distinct ethnic groups with mixed ancestry dwelled, in Cape Town, itself had twitched eyebrows.
But four eventful decades later, he has not only fulfilled his prophecy but also architected his much-reformed country’s greatest coup, winning the World Test Championship, and now shepherded his men to the stupendous feat of winning a series in India, only the second instance by the Proteas. Just three years into his tenure, 58-year-old Conrad, coached by the late Bob Woolmer at the predominant-white Avendale Cricket Club, has shaped an unbreakable South Africa side. Conrad’s brigade is not the most exciting or gifted or the most fearful the country has produced, but few Proteas sides have exuded the sense of togetherness, or inclusiveness or brotherhood like his. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that he has had a similar effect on his team as Clive Lloyd to the West Indies in the mid-1970s, albeit as a captain, that is to galvanise a multicultural group into striving for a single and collective ambition of dominating the world.
He did it with a mix of charm, vision, making stern decisions and sticking to his convictions. In interactions with the media, he is affable and has a knack of turning the most staple questions into funny refrains. Before the Eden Gardens Test, he was probed about his batsmen’s readiness to face Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar. Promptly came the wry reply, with puffed cheeks and eyebrows that almost jutted out of their place: “Are they all playing?” After winning the Test, he almost uttered the word “bloody” Then he braked before the full word shot out of his mouth and asked the reporters: “Did I just use the word, bloody?” “I just wanted to say I am so bloody proud of the group!” He double-checks pronunciations and often weighs and measures his words, betraying his stint as an English teacher in the late 90s. <a href="http://ALSO READ | ‘Dil main lagne wali baat… remember this for long time’: Pujara, Kumble, Akash Chopra react to Shukri Conrad’s ‘grovel’ remark” target=”_blank”>“Grovel” was an anomalous verbal faux pas.
During practice sessions, he is that affable, agony uncle kind, but with oak-like forearms and eyes permanently sun-glassed, that everyone stops by.
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Sometimes for a joke, sometimes for a piece of advice, sometimes for clarity. Conrad has the facial expressions of a dancer, diverse emotions flicker by in a second. He is friendly yet stern, empathetic yet ruthless. The moment he assumed reins, he was firm in his stance of making Temba Bavuma the captain, displacing the veteran Dean Elgar.
“This was my decision. I felt Temba and I were a good fit,” he would say. He was not reluctant to drop big names and big players, if they underperformed. He was open to welcoming players thrust into wilderness, like Simon Harmer, or recalling the out-of-favour Aiden Markram in his first series in charge, he revised his own opinions about players. He once axed Kyke Verreynne before redrafting him. He would emphasise the primacy of character over talent: “There’s some technical things here and there, but for me, character is important. I was always going to select the character.”
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The inner circles of South African cricket are wowed by his man-management skills. Enoch Nkwe, their director of cricket, once told this paper: “After the New Zealand tour, there was a lot of criticism because we sent a C team.
After that tour, Shukri and myself restrategised to find a way to reach the final. From my conversation with Shukri, I felt quite confident we could go all the way, because he had the plans in place. He is a tremendous man-manager and not hesitant to take the big calls.”
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Significantly, the 58-year-old is deeply aware of the cultural complexity of his contribution and the relevance the game holds. “I’ve always felt that we never quite embraced our diversity or saw it as a strength. For far too long, we had this image of what a Protea looked like, and if you didn’t fit that, people would start questioning whether you were really obsessed with the badge,” he said after winning the WTC.
The milieu he grew honed his sensibilities. His father Sedick played 10 first-class games, but his society shunned him because he turned up for a white establishment. He took his son to cricket matches, and he was barely 12 when he started operating scoreboards. A similar fate befell on Conrad when the cricket board banned him for defecting and joining the white SA Cricket Union. He and his family faced death threats. His car was vandalised. His first-class career ended after nine games because the coaches thought he “slogged too much.” He juggled coaching cricket and teaching English. At the stroke of the century, his headmaster asked him to choose between the two, as he was spending a lot of time travelling between South Africa, England and the Netherlands for coaching gigs. He had little doubt in his mind about the path he would choose. He had firmed his mind on coaching his country several decades ago. The road not taken would not bother him or his country.
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