South Africa appoint Shukri Conrad, Rob Walter as new head coaches

Shukri Conrad, who has extensive experience in roles within Cricket South Africa, will take charge of the Test team for the next four years while Rob Walter will coach the Men's ODI and T20 teams, succeeding Mark Boucher in the role.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has confirmed the appointment of new head coaches for both the men's Test and white-ball teams. Shukri Conrad, who has extensive experience in roles within Cricket South Africa, will take charge of the Test team for the next four years while Rob Walter will coach the Men's ODI and T20 teams, succeeding Mark Boucher in the role.

Walter was South Africa's strength and conditioning coach between 2009 and 2013 before moving to New Zealand where he was most recently employed as the head coach of the Central Districts. His appointment comes days after Lance Klusener publicly withdrew his application for the white-ball role.

Conrad has a wealth of experience in African cricket, having held roles as the head coach of Uganda, the head of South Africa's National Academy, and head coach of the Men's U19 team. He also led the U19s at last year's ICC U19 Men's T20 World Cup 2022 before coaching them to victory in the CSA Provisional T20 Cup in October.

"We will always emphasise the value of Test cricket. We are adding a number of Test games over the next four years," CEO of CSA Pholetsi Moseki said on the appointment of Conrad as quoted by ICC. "We are serious about being a Test-playing nation and we take the format very seriously. We have not relegated it to the margins because of T20 and we still see ourselves as a very serious Test-playing nation. We want to invest to get our Test team back to the standards we expect of them."

"We want to be in the top three (in the world), but we are pushing for No. 1, even if it takes another three or four years to get there. Over the next two years, we are solidifying our position and building a bigger player pool," CSA Director of Cricket Enoch Nkew added. (ANI)

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