More training camps deliver optimum preparation for pumped up Proteas

21 November 2024 - 13:35
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Rather than more match time, Shukri Conrad prefers the Proteas to prepare at training camps.
Rather than more match time, Shukri Conrad prefers the Proteas to prepare at training camps.
Image: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images

Gone are the days of starting a tour with a warm-up game, or in the case of the host nation, sending players to their provinces to prepare for a Test series. 

None of South Africa, Sri Lanka, India or recently England have engaged in such trivialities. The Indians conducted their preparations for the five-match series against Australia partly behind closed doors, among themselves, with an intrasquad game at the WACA in Perth. 

Sri Lanka sent nine players to South Africa two weeks ago to acclimatise to local conditions under the watchful eye of temporary consultant Neil McKenzie. They will head to Durban this weekend to put the final touches on their prep ahead of the first Test that starts next Wednesday. 

The Proteas too are holding a training camp that starts on Thursday at Cricket SA’s Centre of Excellence in Tshwane. “We simulate conditions at the training camp that will be like what guys would have got out of playing a four-day match,” said Proteas coach Shukri Conrad. “The guys can bowl at least three spells in a day and will be spending enough time on their feet. We are comfortable that we can get everything out of that two-day camp.” 

It’s very much the new way, with players and coaches now putting a premium on mental preparation. 

Before the tour to Bangladesh, the Proteas chose to stay home, conducting strenuous sessions in Tshwane, where pitches were raked to allow them to train in what were extreme conditions where batters formulated individual game plans. 

It worked too. Conrad mentioned before the team departed that playing a warm-up game in Bangladesh would not provide optimum preparation. “They don’t tend to give you the kind of pitches in the warm-up game that you will face in the Test,” he said. 

The first Test in Mirpur was played on a turning deck, with Bangladesh hoping to reopen old wounds for the Proteas who hadn’t won a Test on the subcontinent in a decade. It didn’t work and the South African players explained afterwards that while the surface assisted the spinners, it wasn’t as extreme as what they’d faced during the pre-tour training camp. 

Conrad isn’t expecting the usual spin-friendly pitch that Kingsmead has become in the past five years when his side faces Sri Lanka there next week. The once “green mamba” which, if local legend was believed, would liven up when the tide rolled in, turned into a raging turner in the last decade. 

In South Africa's last Test there against Bangladesh in 2022, Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer took all 10 second innings wickets, bowling the opposition out for 53. 

“I’ve talked to Evan Flint, who’s been a ground consultant at Kingsmead and the pitch for the Test will be one of the new wickets,” said Conrad. “Evan guaranteed me there will be some pace, though maybe not the bounce there normally is.

“The (Dolphins) prepare it to spin domestically because of the strength of their bowlers — (Prenalen) Subrayen, (JJ) Smuts, Maharaj and (Bryce) Parsons ... it will spin late on day four, which is what you want.” 

Sri Lanka won both Tests in the 2019 series, which were also played in Durban and Gqeberha, the same venues for this year's matches. South Africa don’t have good records at either venue. They’ve lost two of their last three Tests at St George’s Park, while at Kingsmead, it’s worse, just two wins in the last 10 Tests played in KwaZulu-Natal. 

“I have no qualms in going to Durbs and Gqeberha,” said Conrad. “We have great fanbases there and we’re looking forward to playing there.”


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