Ken Borland

The constrained new reality that faces the Proteas Test team calls for a different approach and national red-ball coach Shukri Conrad says he also wants the squad to adopt a new way of thinking.

Because South Africa will be playing so little Test cricket for the foreseeable future – there will be just four Tests at home this summer – the Proteas need to make the most of every game and extract as much as possible from every outing.

But the ever-pugnacious Conrad also doesn’t want the team to start feeling sorry for their lot and sink into a victim mentality. The home Test programme opens on November 27 against Sri Lanka at Kingsmead in Durban, and they then take on the islanders at St George’s Park in Gqeberha from December 5.

That is the exact same schedule as in February 2019 when Sri Lanka claimed an historic 2-0 series win, their first in South Africa. Previous Proteas teams have made little effort to disguise their unhappiness with having to play on spin-friendly surfaces at home, especially at Kingsmead, but that has changed under Conrad’s watch and he states emphatically that he considers South Africa to be “heavy favourites” for that series.

Pakistan then visit for the Boxing Day and New Years Tests in Centurion and Cape Town respectively, which will suit their pace-heavy attack.

“I think it’s great to be playing in Durban. We had a camp there in the winter and it’s a fantastic facility, CEO Heinrich Strydom has done some unbelievable stuff. It’s lekker to play there and we should be heavy favourites, but without being complacent,” Conrad told kenborland.com in an exclusive interview.

“We should start wearing the favourites’ tag more at home and it’s going to be four massive home Tests this summer, not just in terms of the World Test Championship but also for the growth of the team.

“Given we don’t play enough Tests at home, speed-growth is required. Unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of playing 15 Tests a year, so we can’t give players good runs and bring them along slowly. The schedule demands making big calls on players and they have to produce the goods quickly, like Tristan Stubbs, who has shown enough already at number three.

“But this squad has dispelled any talk of not wanting to play at certain venues. It’s a bunch of young bucks and a couple of old hands and they just want to get on with it. They want to get back to being a leading Test side,” Conrad said.

The Test coach was speaking at Willowmoore Park in Benoni after his SA A team had just been soundly beaten by Sri Lanka A to lose their red-ball series 2-0, having earlier gone down 2-1 in the one-dayers. It was a terrible day for South African cricket in general, with the men’s side being bowled out for just 106 and being thrashed by Afghanistan in the first ODI in Sharjah, and the women’s team losing by 13 runs to Pakistan in their T20 series in Multan. Our ladies did at least bounce back and win their series by winning the third T20 on Friday.

Conrad was unequivocal in saying the national teams’ struggles are mostly due to not enough cricket being played at domestic level.

“We’ve actually gained very little from this A series, except the confirmation of the gap between international and our domestic cricket. These are the guys who have done very well at domestic level, so it’s not a great advert for that. They’ve been out-bowled, out-batted and out-thought by Sri Lanka.

“These SA A fixtures are a lot about who can take the step up and the message is quite simple really: what’s below the Test side is concerning. But it’s not entirely the players’ fault – to get better they have to play more, both in Tests and in more first-class cricket.

“If you’re only playing seven first-class games a season then you’re not going to get better. I don’t want it to be about me fighting the system, but we only play 42 days of domestic cricket this season! We can’t have that and whatever the format, we need to be playing more of it.

“CSA obviously have good reasons for the schedule and they also want to know what the best solution is for the domestic game, but at the end of the day we need to find a way to prioritise domestic cricket, even at the expense of the SA A team. If we don’t have quality players feeding into the SA A squad then that structure means nothing.

“I understand the constraints and CSA can only cut their cloth to what they have. But every coach wants more cricket and CSA have committed to it. And first-class cricket is the most important. A lot of cricketers start as hotshot T20 players, but they don’t realise their full potential until they have cut their teeth in first-class cricket.

“Red-ball cricket teaches you about option-taking, you get to understand your game and the different situations you get to face out in the middle. First-class cricket is the breeding ground for all formats and the shop window for talent. It’s how you become a better white-ball player. You still need the art of batsmanship and that has gone out of our game a bit, as seen by our batting on a ragging pitch in Sharjah,” Conrad said.

Two possible Tests in Bangladesh from October 15, depending on CSA getting clearance from their security team this weekend, will be a welcome addition to the schedule, but Conrad knows he has to fast-track everything if South Africa are to make any progress in the red-ball format.

Now that the painful Test series in Australia is over, the critics no longer need to sit in their chairs in front of the TV in the early hours of the morning and jeer the Proteas, and the anticipated extravaganza that the SA20 will be should distract attention anyway.

But one hopes what transpired in Australia is not forgotten, lost in the hurly-burly of the new T20 league and just the sheer volume of cricket and sport that constantly competes for attention. Let’s not forget that the Proteas also spent October and November in Australia, playing in the T20 World Cup, where they bowed out at the hands of minnows the Netherlands. The anger over that fiasco may have died down a bit, but the promise of a full review by Cricket South Africa has not been forgotten. The outcome of that review and the rebuilding strategies decided upon are now overdue.

The responsibility for making sure lessons are learnt from the 2-0 hiding (it surely would have been 3-0 but for rain) lies with the administrators, who now have the opportunity to ensure something good comes out of the ruins.

The current team and their coaches, plus the former players working as commentators in Australia, have all pinpointed the amount of domestic first-class cricket, as well as the standard, as being the main cause of the woeful performances of the Proteas lately. So that is surely where CSA need to start their autopsy.

CSA’s current executives inherited a house that was in drastic need of renovation and Proteas fans need to realise that there are no quick fixes at international level. But that is no excuse for inaction and CSA need to come up with definite plans that have the health of the Proteas – still by far their greatest source of income – as the greatest priority.

It is all very well if the next month is spent admiring the dazzling front garden of the house that is the SA20, but the fire that is raging in the kitchen needs some attention too.

Proteas captain Dean Elgar says he is looking forward to getting home and enjoying a juicy steak on the braai following his team’s 2-0 hiding in the Test series against Australia, but at least some of the hurt and embarrassment was eased by the draw they managed to secure on the final day of the third Test in Sydney on Sunday.

South Africa came through the flames on Sunday, managing to stretch their first innings from 149/6 to 255, and then making 106/2 in their follow-on innings to deny the sizzling hot Australians a 3-0 sweep. They are not scores that would usually prompt satisfied celebrations, but this Proteas team needs small victories at the moment.

“We had a conversation last night where we said we could either lie down today and let Australia roll us, creating more embarrassment, or we could fight it out for the full final day,” Elgar said.

“It was really great to see how the team responded and there were a lot of learnings today. Being hurt and embarrassed probably go hand-in-hand, but maybe we feel that a bit less now. We showed a lot of fight and there were positive signs.”

Elgar must have felt like he was a piece of meat being braaied in the flames as he endured a miserable series, scoring just 56 runs in six innings.

“I could never get going in this series and the one time I did, I managed to run myself out. I can accept being caught down the leg-side twice, but three or four times highly irritates me. That’s something different. Generally there is a way you get out, and bowlers target that.

“Ten years into my Test career and now there’s something new. I’ll have to look at it. There have been a few conversations between me and the batting coach about some extra work.

“But for now I just want to get on a plane, go home, chill out, braai, go to the bush and play some golf. Taking as much time off as I want is what I need,” Elgar said.

The 35-year-old said he still has big ambitions, however, around the whole tricky business of fixing South Africa’s Test fortunes.

“There are four-day games in February before the two Tests against the West Indies. I still have the hunger and drive, no doubt. And I really believe there’s space for CSA to entertain motivating the players more who play this format.

“There’s room for discussion around compensation for the purest format, and we also need to play more games. At the moment the number of Tests is being stripped back and we are behind the pack,” Elgar pointed out.

The Proteas at least spared themselves one last round of smarmy remarks about their abilities as they secured a draw in the third and final Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday.

Having already lost the series 2-0, South Africa needed to bat through the final day with 14 wickets in hand. Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj showed some stout resistance in the lower-order as the Proteas made 255 in their first innings.

It was just 21 runs shy of avoiding the follow-on, but it did at least mean there were only 47 overs left for them to survive in the final day’s play, and they comfortably batted themselves to safety on 106/2.

Captain Dean Elgar’s torrid tour continued as he was once again caught down the leg-side, sparring at a lifter, from opposite number Pat Cummins, having struggled to 10.

But his opening partner, Sarel Erwee, was looking solid, and Heinrich Klaasen, in the unaccustomed position of No.3, batted with a lot more positivity than in the first innings as they added 48 for the second wicket.

Klaasen was eventually bowled for 35 as Josh Hazlewood, making an impressive return from injury, snuck a superb reverse-swinger through his defences.

But Erwee fought through to 42 not out in 125 balls at the crease, Temba Bavuma being with him on 17 not out when the captains agreed to call it a draw with five overs remaining.

Earlier, the effort of Harmer and Maharaj, adding 85 for the eighth wicket either side of lunch showed that the fighting spirit in the Proteas side is probably still kosher.

Harmer was well-equipped for a long stay at the crease, deserving great praise for his defiant 47 in three-and-a-half hours, while Maharaj did his utmost to see South Africa past the follow-on score with his 53 off 81 balls. He got himself in first, and then backed his attacking game as he struck six fours and a six, pulling especially well.

South Africa had begun the final day on 149/6 and Marco Jansen extended his tenacious stay at the crease, batting for more than an hour-and-a-half in scoring 11 off 78 balls before edging part-time off-spinner Travis Head to the wicketkeeper.

Hazlewood eventually broke South Africa’s resistance in an excellent spell after lunch. Using a hint of reverse-swing, he trapped Maharaj lbw and then bowled Harmer off the inside-edge, to finish with 4/48 in 23 overs.