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Dean Elgar, a former Test captain for South Africa, exposed the brutal truth of political and administrative goals destroying the atmosphere and ethos of the squad. Furthermore, as Elgar asserted, this resulted in his unceremoniously dismissal from the captaincy in the most authentic version of the game.
Elgar expressed his views about being “stabbed in the back” by Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) management and the squad’s current head coach, Shukri Conrad, as he detailed the difficulties he faced in rebuilding the team. Notably, the 36-year-old said goodbye to his career as an international cricket player back in January and went on to sign a three-year, lucrative contract with the English county Essex. In addition, looking back on his Test career, he charged that Sh had shortened it because he felt more at ease discussing and making plans with Temba Bavuma, the South Africa captain at the time.
Dean Elgar did not, however, back down from emphasizing that, in spite of all the obstacles, he maintained cordial relationships with both Temba Bavuma and his old colleagues. In addition, the former Protea captain stated that in March 2021, he was exposed to a somewhat “toxic culture” when he assumed leadership of the “Rainbow Nation” in the Test format.
“I never want to go through what I went through when I became a full-time politician and a part-time cricket player. I am an athlete, not a politician or an administrator of cricket, but I found myself thrust into a situation where I had to fulfill the roles of all three. Elgar stated in an interview with Rapport Newspaper, “I would never have accepted the captaincy if I had known that beforehand.”
“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,” the 36-year-old said.
We developed into a group capable of competing in the World Test Championship match: Dean Elgar
Dean Elgar continued the conversation by recalling how, despite starting as a low-ranked squad in the past, he had worked hard to get South Africa’s Test team to the point where they were going to play in the World Test Championship final. Furthermore, he recalled the period in 2022 when the late great Graeme Smith departed as Director of Cricket, leaving him to shoulder the additional responsibility of getting South African cricket back on track alongside then-coach Mark Boucher and the team management.
“We improved from sixth or seventh place in the world to a team that might compete in the World Test Championship final. I attempted to control what I could control and make the most out of a difficult situation. But I lost a lot of shape myself,” Elgar said.
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