Wanted them to really grovel: Conrad on the timing of declaration

THERE was a strange energy in both press conferences after Day Four of the second Test between India and South Africa. The hosts, needing a further 522 runs to level the two-match series, declared that they, at best, would draw the match.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN @ Guwahati

That result would be a ‘win-win situation’ for the team, Ravindra Jadeja said. Minutes later, Shukri Conrad, the South African coach, said ‘we wanted them to really grovel, to steal a phrase’. That particular wording has a historical racism context to it. It (the word ‘grovel’) was used by Tony Grieg, a white English skipper who grew up in Apartheid South Africa, just before the West Indies came to play a series in England in 1976. It produced a reaction from the visitors who subsequently beat the hosts 3-0 ina lopsided Test series.

Conrad, though, didn’t appear to utter those words in bad faith. He meant it within the context of already tired Indian bodies and minds spending a few extra hours on the field when asked why the declaration didn’t come before lunch.