From grovelling to greatness: Proteas conquer their Everest in India

GROVEL.

- ZAAHIER ADAMS

Aiden Markram celebrates a wicket during the Proteas' Test series against India

(AFP)

A term that has for long carried negative connotations within cricket due to former England captain Tony Greig's comments almost 50 years ago ahead of the series against the all-black West Indies team. It was a different world back then.South Africa was still deep in the throes of Apartheid, and Greig, a South African-born white man, made his statements only a few weeks before the 1976 Soweto Uprising, when police opened fire on schoolchildren protesting to be taught in their mother tongue.

So when Proteas coach Shukri Conrad, who was himself denied the opportunity to represent his country due to the colour of his skin, loosely tossed up the grenade on the eve of arguably one of the finest days in the Proteas' Test history, the Indian media went ballistic.

They had their story: another South African using racist terminology.

But as Conrad often points out, always make sure of the facts, for they could ruin a good story. The Oxford Dictionary explains grovel as an "act in an obsequious way in order to obtain someone's forgiveness or favour."

And that applies more to South African cricket than any other nation.

For the past decade, Cricket South Africa (CSA) have been the ones grovelling at the feet of the "Big Three" - India, England and Australia for a seat at the main table.