Stabbed in the back: Shukri is the reason why my Test career was cut short, says Dean Elgar
Former Test captain Dean Elgar described a toxic environment of politics and poor administration in South African cricket and says he feels he had been "stabbed in the back" when he was axed from the leadership role last year.
Elgar, 36, is now playing for English county Essex after retiring from international cricket.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Rapport over the weekend, Elgar says he had held back from criticising his former employers before his contract with Cricket South Africa expired at the end of April.
He says he was exposed to an unhealthy culture after he was appointed captain in March 2021, explaining: “I became a part-time cricketer and full-time politician, something that I never want to go through again.
“I am a sportsman, not a politician or a cricket administrator, but I was thrown into a cauldron in which I had to be all three. If I had known that before, I would never have accepted the captaincy.”
He says the resignation of former captain Graeme Smith as director of cricket in March 2022 had put a heavy burden on him, coach Mark Boucher and the team management.
Elgar says it was difficult to balance the interests of the team with those of CSA’s management, adding: “I tried to make the best of a bad job, to control the things I could control. But my own form took a dive.”
He says that with hindsight he wishes he had been more selfish and focused more on his own game.
It was a shock nevertheless when he was summoned to a meeting with director of cricket Enoch Nkwe and new coach Shukri Conrad in February last year and told that he had been replaced as captain by Temba Bavuma.
He says: “It felt as though they did not recognise all my hard work over the previous year-and-a-half, that they didn’t realise how much we had improved as a team.
“From being sixth or seventh in the world we became a team with the potential to play in the World Test championship final.”
According to Elgar, the only reason Conrad gave for the change was that he felt "better aligned" with Bavuma.
Of Conrad he adds: “Shukri Conrad is the reason why my Test career was cut short.
“I think I don’t fit into the South African situation as it is now and probably into the future.”
Elgar led South Africa in 18 of his 86 Tests.
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