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Thiago Alcantara has started his new role as Barcelona assistant coach under Hansi Flick, bringing his vision and experience to the first-team setup.

• Thiago confirmed as Barca coach
• La Masia graduate returns
• Work already underway with Flick

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Thiago has officially began work at Barcelona as a first-team assistant coach to Flick. The 34-year-old, who previously starred for Barca before winning titles with Bayern Munich and Liverpool, was spotted at the club’s facilities earlier this week and joined the players on the pitch in his new role. He will be responsible for tactical preparation, planning training sessions and providing his vision to support the squad’s daily work. His first day back at the club coincided with the return of the likes of Marcus Rashford, Jules Kounde, Raphinha, Andreas Christensen, Ronald Araujo and Roony Bardghji from international duty.

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  WHAT BARCELONA SAID

  The Catalan giants officially welcomed Thiago back into the fold with a statement confirming his new role on Flick’s coaching staff. 

  "First official day on the job for Thiago Alcántara as a member of the coaching staff. The former blaugrana player started work on the grass today as a member of the first team coaching staff as an assistant coach to Hansi Flick. His role will involve helping with tactical aspects and preparing training sessions, among other things, bringing his experience and vision of the game to enrich the squad's day to day work," the club announced.

• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  The Spaniard's return is a symbolic and strategic move as Barca undergo a rebuild under Flick. A La Masia product with Champions League pedigree, he blends deep knowledge of the club’s style with an understanding of Flick’s high-pressing system, having worked with him at Bayern during their historic sextuple campaign in 2019-20. His presence also serves as a bridge for younger talents like Pedri and Gavi, who have previously praised his guidance, while his fluency in German strengthens communication across the squad.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR BARCELONA?

  With Thiago now embedded in the coaching staff, Barcelona shift focus to Sunday’s home clash against Valencia at the Estadi Johan Cruyff. Flick will use the remaining sessions this week to fine-tune tactics, with Thiago actively involved in preparations as the club aim to secure their first home win of the new campaign and bounce back from their 1-1 draw against Rayo Vallecano.

Essex skittled Notts for 96 in their first innings before the visiting captain’s century earned back some respectability

ECB Reporters Network11-Sep-2024

Jamie Porter and Simon Harmer shared nine first-innings wickets as Essex skittled Nottinghamshire for 93 on a morning of utter carnage at Chelmsford.Seam bowler Porter took his third five-wicket haul of the season, and second in consecutive Vitality County Championship matches, to finish with 5 for 35, season’s best figures that included three wickets in five balls.Simon Harmer also claimed his best bowling figures of the summer with 4 for 16 from 12.5 overs and then took the first two wickets of Nottinghamshire’s second innings. Allied with a season’s best 51 in Essex’s 457, it was a welcome return to form for the off-spinning all-rounder who has been dogged by persistent injury.Nottinghamshire’s inability to cope with Porter’s pace and Harmer’s guile on a wicket that had become less benign overnight, left them 364 runs adrift on first innings. When they followed on, captain Haseeb Hameed led the fightback with a patiently crafted unbeaten 100 from 151 balls and put on an unbroken 131 with Joe Clarke (62 not out) for the third wicket. At the close, Nottinghamshire were 180 for 2, still 184 runs from making Essex bat again.It was the perfect repost from Essex on the day the ECB confirmed their 12-point deduction after opening batsman Feroze Khushi was found to have used an illegally-sized bat in the reverse fixture at Trent Bridge in April. It does, however, end their dwindling hopes of challenging for the title.Nottinghamshire’s first innings fell apart spectacularly on a sunny, though chilly morning as 48 for 1 became 93 all out, with nine wickets clattering in 87 minutesThere was no sign of what was to come in the first half-hour as Ben Slater and Freddie McCann added 31 to their overnight score. But then Harmer came on and struck first ball when McCann moved forward half-cock and was the first of five LBWs in the morning. Harmer had two of the next three wickets to fall as Ben Slater was snaffled at slip and Jack Haynes was the second lbw victim.In between Porter replaced the unlucky Sam Cook, who had discomforted McCann on several occasions and might have had something to show for a venomous opening spell had Matt Critchley not dropped Joe Clarke at gulley. It did not prove too expensive as Porter had Clarke pinned lbw in his first over.Nottinghamshire’s South African wicketkeeper-batsman Kyle Verreynne came out all guns blazing, reverse-sweeping Harmer for four and driving Porter over the long-off boundary. However, his nine-ball cameo ended on 12 when he drove Porter uppishly into the covers.Lyndon James departed to a stunning full-length dive low to his left by Michael Pepper to spark Porter’s three-quick-wicket burst. Luke Fletcher, first ball, and Liam Patterson-White fell lbw before Harmer wrapped things up by having Rob Lord caught at bat-pad.Following on, Hameed and Slater looked comfortable for a dozen overs after lunch before Slater misjudged a delivery from Harmer that beat the outside edge and bowled him. The teenaged McCann was bamboozled for a second time by Harmer, the sixth player to go lbw during the day.Hameed was particularly strong off the back-foot, punching the ball through extra cover for a succession of boundaries, and reached his sixth fifty-plus score of the season from 70 balls. That Nottinghamshire made a better fist of it in the second innings was illustrated by the fact they had overhauled their first-innings total by tea for the loss of just two wickets.Hameed found a willing partner in Clarke and the pair steadied things by putting the first fifty of their stand in 14 overs, taking another 15 for the second fifty. As confidence grew, Clarke came down the wicket and smashed Harmer over midwicket for six on the way to reaching his half-century from 105 balls.A quick single took Hameed to three-figures just before stumps off his 151st ball.

Batter calls time on England having not featured since 50-over World Cup in 2023

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Aug-2024Dawid Malan, England’s former No.1-ranked T20I batter, has announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 37.Malan, who played 22 Tests, 30 ODIs and 62 T20Is, is one of only two England men’s batters (alongside Jos Buttler) to have made centuries in all three international formats. However, he had not featured in an England squad since the 50-over World Cup in India last year, and confirmed his decision after his omission from the forthcoming white-ball series against Australia.”It has been an incredible journey since July 2017,” Malan said. “I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to play for England in all three formats.”Cricket, like most sports, is an industry where almost everyone eventually retires wishing they had done that little bit more. Whether you’ve played ten Tests or 100, many step away regretting not playing just one more, scoring a few more runs, or winning more trophies.”Right now, as I retire from international cricket, I can say I am genuinely satisfied. It has not been easy. It may be my nature, but for whatever reason, it has always seemed that I had something to prove and often felt as if I was playing for my place. The pressure goes with the territory, but it does take a mental and physical toll. Even so, I look back with pride on what I have been able to achieve.”Despite announcing himself with a free-flowing innings of 78 from 44 on his T20I debut against South Africa in 2017, Malan’s initial breakthrough with England came on the following winter’s Ashes tour, where he made his only Test hundred, 140 from 227 balls, in partnership with Jonny Bairstow at Perth.However, it was in the T20I format that he truly made his name, most particularly in the aftermath of England’s ODI World Cup victory in 2019, when he forced his way into the team’s 20-over plans through his sheer weight of run-making, including a 48-ball hundred at Napier on that winter’s tour of New Zealand.In September 2020, he reached the top of the ICC’s batting rankings for T20I cricket, and the following March, he became the fastest men’s player to reach 1000 runs in the format, from just 24 innings, all but one of which had been at least double-figures. He was also a T20 World Cup winner in Australia in 2022, although he missed the knock-out stages after tearing his groin in the field against Sri Lanka.Due to the success of the 50-over squad, Malan took longer to break into the ODI team – despite the prevailing sense that it was the format for which he was best suited, with his tendency to begin an innings cautiously before unfurling his full range of strokes at the back end often attracting criticism during his T20I performances.Nevertheless, he seized his chance when it came, scoring five ODI hundreds in the space of 15 innings between June 2022 and September 2023, to make an unequivocal case to replace England’s incumbent opener, Jason Roy, in the 2023 World Cup squad. He then added a sixth hundred in the second match of the tournament to guide England to victory over Bangladesh in Dharamsala, but he could not survive the fall-out from the team’s disappointing overall campaign.Speaking to The Times, Malan said that he had “exceeded all expectations of myself in white-ball formats”, but admitted that his inability to forge a more consistent Test career would be a regret. Ten of his 22 appearances came on consecutive tours of Australia in 2017-18 and 2021-22, where his average of 33.00 is bettered only by Alastair Cook, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow among regular England performers of the past decade. However, he never played the format again after England’s 146-run defeat at Hobart in January 2022.Related

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“Test cricket was always the pinnacle for me growing up,” he said. “At times I played well but in between just wasn’t good enough or consistent enough, which was disappointing because I felt I was a better player than that.”I took all three formats extremely seriously but the intensity of Test cricket was something else: five days plus the days building up. I’m a big trainer; I love hitting lots of balls and I’d train hard in the build-up, and then the days were long and intense. You can’t switch off. I found it very mentally draining, especially the long Test series that I played, where my performances dropped off from the third or fourth Test onwards.””But, you know, on the field I always did what I felt was right to win a game for the team. I never walked off the field if I got runs not caring about whether we had won or lost. It was always about winning and I’d always question myself as to whether I’d made the right decisions on the field to do that.”Malan is likely to be in high demand on the T20 franchise circuit with his England career behind him. He was most recently in action for Oval Invincibles, helping the team to victory in the Men’s Hundred, two years after he was part of the Trent Rockets squad that claimed the 2022 title. Last winter, he helped Sunrisers Eastern Cape win the second season of the SA20, and was also in action for Multan Sultans in the PSL.Rob Key, the managing director of England Men’s Cricket, added: “Dawid Malan retires after an excellent international career marked by resilience and determination.”Early on, he had to fight for every opportunity, often facing some of the best teams in the world. His contributions were pivotal, particularly during the memorable World Cup victories in Australia, where he played an integral role in the team’s success.”His legacy will be remembered as one of tenacity and achievement on the international stage – traits any player would be extremely proud to have.”

Fulham have now opened talks to sign a “spectacular” U21 European Championships star, having expressed a concrete interest in securing his signature, according to a report from Sky Sports.

Cottagers set sights on U21 Euros star

Several players put themselves in the shop window courtesy of their performances at the recent U21 Euros, with former Fulham man Harvey Elliott playing a vital role in England’s triumph, picking up five goals throughout the tournament.

The Cottagers have expressed an interest in signing Elliott in the past, and the midfielder’s recent performances are only likely to have driven up his value, with Liverpool now thought to be holding out for a fee of £40m.

However, the Liverpool ace was not the only midfielder who excelled at the tournament, with a report revealing Marco Silva’s side have now taken steps towards securing the signature of a different midfielder…

Leeds leading Fulham in race to sign £8.5m defender alongside Bornauw

Leeds United are now in a race to sign a defender who has been impressing in Germany.

ByBrett Worthington Jul 1, 2025

According to Sky Sports (via Sport Witness), Fulham have now expressed a concrete interest in signing Borussia Monchengladbach’s Rocco Reitz, submitting an enquiry over a potential summer deal.

Reitz has a £17m release clause which becomes active next summer, and he is attracting widespread interest from within the Premier League, with West Ham United thought to be leading the race for his signature.

Monchengladbach are worried by the interest in one of their key players, with the German club determined to retain his services, but the fact the midfielder is set to be available for £17m next year could lead them to auctioning him off this summer.

"Spectacular" Reitz impressing for Germany U21s

Germany ultimately came up short in the U21 Euros final, with England prevailing 3-2 after Jonathan Rowe’s extra-time winner, but Reitz impressed throughout the tournament, being singled out for high praise from football talent scout Jacek Kulig.

Fellow scout Antonio Mango has lauded the maestro as “spectacular” in the past, and he has proven himself to be exceptional at winning back possession, ranking in the top 1% for interceptions per 90 over the past year, when compared to his positional peers.

After losing Joao Palhinha last summer, Fulham brought in Sander Berge, but there are signs the Mönchengladbach midfielder could be more of a like-for-like replacement for the Portugal international, considering his defensive qualities.

As such, Reitz could be a shrewd acquisition for Silva this summer, and the manager will be hoping that Fulham finishing higher than West Ham last season will give them the edge over their Premier League rivals in negotiations.

Alexander Isak’s form in the 2024/25 campaign for Newcastle United has been sensational. Around a month ago, at the end of April, Jamie Carragher described the Swede as the “best striker in the Premier League right now”, and looking at the numbers, it is not hard to see why.

In 33 games in the English top flight, the striker has scored 23 goals and grabbed six assists. He has featured for 2,684 minutes in the Premier League, leaving him with an extraordinary average of one goal every 116 minutes.

With Isak’s superb form, it is no surprise Newcastle are looking to bolster his attack and bring him even more support in forward areas ahead of next term.

Newcastle’s latest attacking target

There might not be a more eye-catching signing to go along with Isak and winger Anthony Gordon in the Magpies’ attack than Borussia Dortmund winger Jamie Gittens. It has been an impressive campaign for the Englishman, and he could well leave the Bundesliga this summer.

Transfer Focus

Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

According to a report from former Manchester United chief scout Mick Brown, in conversation with Football Insider, Newcastle ‘are working on a move to sign’ the young winger this summer. Brown confirmed that the North Eastern side have ‘had scouts watching him this season’ and could now swoop in to sign him.

Surprisingly, although Gittens is a player with high potential, this is a deal that could come cheap.

A report from talkSPORT last month claimed he is valued at just £35m by Dortmund. However, they also link Chelsea to a move for the winger, meaning Newcastle might face strong competition.

Why Gittens would be a good signing

It has been a strong campaign for Gittens, despite a tough time of it as a team for Dortmund. Described by Sky Sports’ Dougie Critchley as “England’s best winger in 24/25”, the 20-year-old has certainly made a difference at times in that famous Black and Yellow shirt.

In 48 games this season across all competitions, Gittens has managed to find the back of the net on 12 occasions and has also created five goals for his teammates. In total, 12 of those goal involvements have come in the Bundesliga.

However, if there was one game where Gittens really showed what he can do, it was away to Real Madrid in the Champions League group stage. The former Manchester City academy man impressed against the La Liga giants, executing an incisive counter-attack to give his side a 2-0 lead.

One thing that really stands out about Gittens is his ability with the ball at his feet. He is a fantastic ball carrier, deadly in one-vs-one scenarios and confident in taking a defender on and beating him in those situations.

In fact, the stats on FBref from the Bundesliga season show just how good he is when carrying the ball. For example, Gittens averages 5.73 progressive carries and 3.9 successful take-ons per 90 minutes, both of which rank him in the top 1% of wingers in the Bundesliga.

Well, Newcastle will be hoping that Gittens can replicate Isak’s impact at St James’ Park. Just like the young England U21 star, Isak was formerly a Dortmund player, where he made 13 appearances but only scored once.

However, his impact in the North East has been colossal, proving that you can certainly make a fine transition from Germany to English football.

108 games and 62 goals later, he is, as Carragher said, one of the stars of the Premier League, and a far better player than he was at Dortmund all those years ago.

Newcastle would surely love for Gittens to replicate that sort of impact. He could well become the second coming of Isak, that is to say, a former Dortmund player who has a fantastic impact on the North Eastern club.

At just £35m, Gittens seems like a bargain, and this feels like a move Newcastle must do, to further elevate their attack.

A dream for Isak: Newcastle plotting move for £50m "wonderkid"

Howe has sent scouts to watch a Bundesliga wonderkid for Newcastle United.

By
Ross Kilvington

May 17, 2025

Chelsea now want to trigger the £70m release clause included in the contract of an “unbelievable” Premier League star, according to a report.

Blues set for exciting end to the season

As the season approaches its climax, the Blues still have everything to play for, with the result in next Sunday’s trip to Nottingham Forest set to decide whether Enzo Maresca’s side return to the Champions League next season.

Not only that, but the west Londoners also have the opportunity to become the first club to win all three major European trophies, should they defeat Real Betis in the Conference League final at the end of the month,

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, Gus Poyet recently spoke about the importance of Maresca winning the Conference League, despite it not being the most prestigious competition, saying: “I think for him, Chelsea winning the European competition will be the platform to build on for next season. It’s always important winning a trophy for Chelsea and you cannot lose that.

£172k-per-week star keen to join Chelsea regardless of Champions League race

He’d want the move to Stamford Bridge no strings attached.

13 ByEmilio Galantini May 17, 2025

In order to compete for the more major honours next season, however, Chelsea may need to strengthen this summer, and a report from Spain has now revealed they are lining up a move for Eberechi Eze, fresh off the back of the winger scoring the winner in the FA Cup final.

Such is the Blues’ level of interest, they are willing to trigger the £70m release clause in Eze’s contract, but there may be competition for the Crystal Palace star’s signature, with Manchester City also making moves.

Palace are, understandably, reluctant to sell the 26-year-old, but the England international thinks this summer could be the perfect time to leave and start competing for major trophies more regularly elsewhere.

Eze could be "unbelievable" signing for Chelsea

The 26-year-old could now be tempted to remain at Selhurst Park beyond the summer, with his goal in the shock 1-0 FA Cup final victory over Manchester City securing Europa League football for the Eagles next season.

However, the London-born attacker has certainly earned a big move this summer, having regularly provided goals and assists in all three of the domestic competitions he has competed in this season.

Competition

Appearances

Goals

Assists

Premier League

32

7

8

FA Cup

5

4

1

EFL Cup

4

2

2

The Palace star has been performing at a very high level for quite some time, having been lauded as “unbelievable” by Statman Dave last season, so it is little wonder that some of the Premier League’s top clubs are queuing up for his signature.

Right now, Eze will undoubtedly want to revel in the glory of securing a first-ever major trophy for Palace, but the Englishman will have a difficult decision to make this summer, as a move to Chelsea could be of great appeal, should they manage to qualify for the Champions League.

In mid-December, Chelsea moved within touching distance of leaders Liverpool after beating Brentford 2-1 in the Premier League. However, Enzo Maresca was quick to dispel claims that his team were title challengers.

Such words were met as being overly pragmatic, but there has been a fair bit of prescience through a number of the Italian’s comments, also calling for more productivity from his forwards to ease the burden on Cole Palmer’s shoulders.

Palmer, so effortlessly untouchable last season, has been in the mire over the past few months, with Saturday’s victory over Everton taking his goalless run to 17 matches in all competitions.

The England international will be back in the limelight before long, and no mistake, such is his top-grade quality. Maresca, in any case, has proven himself to be an expert tactician, albeit a tad set in his ways.

But he is open to change, which was perfectly illustrated by the decision to unleash Noni Madueke on the left wing at the weekend.

Noni Madueke's new role

Madueke has ebbed and flowed for Chelsea this season, starting off to a flyer but peeling away in recent months, only scoring twice across 13 recent Premier League outings.

He didn’t score, nor did he claim an assist, but Madueke was an absolute menace up and down that left channel, darting this way and that while getting stuck in to win balls off his opponents and beat them in the duel.

Minutes played

78′

Goals

0

Assists

0

Shots (on target)

4 (4)

Accurate passes

20/25 (80%)

Key passes

0

Dribbles

4/6

Duels won

9/13

Tackles

2

Maresca will also have been pleased to note that the left-footer managed to hit the target with all four of his efforts on goal, certainly suggesting he could find himself featuring in this new role with regularity over the closing weeks.

The London Standard were impressed, giving the 23-year-old an 8/10 match rating after his excellent display, noting that he terrorised Toffees right-back Nathan Patterson throughout the afternoon.

This is all well and good, especially with Jadon Sancho not quite hitting his full stride and Mykhaylo Mudryk remaining unavailable for selection, but it’s not going to change Chelsea’s approach this summer.

The Londoners want a new left-sided winger, and they may well be circling in on an upgrade on Madueke.

Chelsea make contact for new winger

As per Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, Chelsea have made contact with Jamie Gittens’ management team as they look to complete a deal this summer.

Prepared to double the Borussia Dortmund prospect’s salary, Chelsea appear to have found the perfect player to strengthen their wide flanks, especially since the Bundesliga club would be willing to do business.

Former €100m (£87m) demands have been whittled down given sixth-place Dortmund’s struggles this season, with Chelsea confident they can get a deal done for €60m (£51m).

Why Chelsea should sign Jamie Gittens

A product of Manchester City’s youth academy, Gittens left his homeland and signed for Bor. Dortmund in 2020, when he was just 16.

It was a bold move, but one that has paid dividends for a rising talent now regarded as “England’s best winger in 2024/25” by Sky Sports’ Dougie Critchley, having made prolific headway this season.

24/25

45 (33)

12

5

23/24

34 (18)

2

8

22/23

20 (5)

3

1

21/22

4 (1)

0

0

Now 20, Gittens has added goals to his name, having demonstrated his creative flair in the past, and it’s frightening to think that he’s still so young.

The addition of goals to his game makes for a nice showcase, but Gittens’ nuts and bolts derive from his athleticism, his pace and running power. As per FBref, he ranks among the top 6% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for progressive carries and the top 2% for successful take-ons per 90.

His goalscoring sense, combined with the ferocious wheels, make Gittens a contender for superstardom down the line. It’s not out of the question to claim that he’s already performing above Madueke’s level, something echoed by the aforementioned Critchley.

Having outscored his compatriot, Gittens has also averaged 2.7 dribbles and won 5.2 duels per Bundesliga game this term, as per Sofascore.

These are skills that bespeak a successful career in the Premier League, with Madueke recording inferior metrics: 1.3 dribbles and 3.3 successful duels per fixture.

Gittens really does have the world at his feet, with his ball-striking catered toward various angles, capable of arcing efforts across goal or angling strikes into the close corner.

His quick feet and intelligent touches allow him to connect with teammates and burst through the lines to find space in the danger area. This is something which could work a treat with Palmer, whose central influence would appear to be perfect for such a darting wide partner.

He’s also proven himself in the Champions League, actually praised by Fabrizio Romano earlier in the campaign for his “special” game against Club Brugge to kick off the term, bagging twice off the bench in a 3-0 win.

The £49k-per-week prospect has everything in his locker to become a top-performing star for Maresca’s Chelsea, bearing a ball-playing capacity and smartness on the ball that echoes that of Madueke while developing a goalscoring sense that could tip the odds in his favour as he strives for that regular starting berth in the years to come at Stamford Bridge.

Best signing since Palmer: Chelsea make big offer for "world-class" gem

Chelsea appear to be edging closer to landing their first signing ahead of the summer window.

ByEthan Lamb Apr 25, 2025

Conrad’s life and career have reflected South Africa’s divided history as well as its culture of sporting excellence

Firdose Moonda08-Jan-2025″This is going to look different.”That was one of the first things Shukri Conrad knew when he took over as South Africa’s Test coach in February 2023.His way was not going to be what some would call the traditional South African way: a style of playing cricket that emerged from the posh, historically white, boys’ schools. Conrad did not intend to follow that mould.”I’ve always felt that we never quite embraced our diversity or saw it as a strength. For far too long, we had this image of what a Protea looked like, and if you didn’t fit that, people would start questioning whether you were really obsessed with the badge,” he said after South Africa qualified for the World Test Championship final to be held at Lord’s in June.”And why? Because some guys come across as too laidback or they have dreadlocks or sideburns and maybe they don’t fit the poster-boy image associated with what an international cricketer looks like. We know there are values and ethics and norms that we always will hold very dear and that doesn’t change, but the boy that comes out of Afrikaans Hoerskool in Pretoria and the boy from Groenvlei on the Cape Flats, or the Indian boy out of Lenasia, the obsession looks different for all of them. I mean, you come down the coast and the guys are so laidback they’re almost horizontal, but they are desperate to play for South Africa, to win for South Africa. It just looks different from everybody else’s.”Conrad knows this because in his life, things have always looked a little different.Related

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He grew up in the 1970s in a cricketing home in the Cape Flats, a low-lying area east of the Cape Town CBD, demarcated for coloured South Africans during the apartheid era, but his father, Sedick, decided to play for a white club. Even in the deepest, darkest days of segregation, this was possible because there were sporadic, albeit token, attempts at integration. Those players of colour who chose to play on the white side made both a sporting and political decision: by playing cricket in a system that was better resourced, they were able to advance their own games but at the cost of being ostracised from their own communities. Sedick was banned by the non-racial Western Province Cricket Board, the body formed as an alternative to the white cricket establishment, and in which people of all races played their cricket.When Conrad was eight, his father was selected in a white South African Invitation XI that included Barry Richards, Eddie Barlow and Graeme Pollock against the Derrick Robins 1975 touring side at Newlands. It was Conrad’s first time at the ground, but he does not remember it as a happy occasion. “That didn’t go down well, because of the state of the country and where my dad chose to play his cricket.”A few years later, Conrad ended up working on the manual scorecard at the ground because one of his neighbours operated it. Keeping the scoreboard ticking was a complex hierarchy that involved making one’s way up from counting the overs to field-spotting and being paid five rand (about two American cents) plus a slice of fruitcake a day. When Conrad talks about it, it is clear those memories are fond.”Down the bottom [of the scoreboard] was the overs, and that’s where you start off. If you did that well enough, you got promoted to doing the bowling analysis, so your maths needed to be okay. You’d be able to count to six and then, obviously, the number of runs scored in that over.”Then you got to do the batters and the runs, but the big job was operating the lights [on the scoreboard]. Whoever was bowling, his light had to be on. The batter that was facing, his light had to be on, but the really tricky one was, whoever fielded the ball, you had to flip that light as well. I spent a lot of my time during school studying who the players were, not doing my schoolwork. I landed that probably at age 12.”1:59

Shukri Conrad on Kwena Maphaka

By then Conrad had also started playing cricket for a coloured club. When Hasan Howa, the founding member of the South African Cricket Board – the umbrella body of non-racial cricket – found out that Conrad was playing what was called “board cricket”, he put a stop to it.”I’ll never forget,” Conrad said, “he was this big, burly character with a deep voice, and he basically said to people, ‘Well, his dad is playing on the other side, he’s not allowed to play here.’ And rightly so.”Conrad was then recruited by an administrator who formed a team of coloured school boys that played against the white schools in the area – thereby becoming a part of the white cricket circuit. Their opposition included SACS, the alma mater of Peter Kirsten, Bishops and Rondebosch, where Gary Kirsten studied. “Their lunches were great,” Conrad said. “We’re talking real privilege.”Conrad played in that system until he finished school, by which time South Africa was a political pressure cooker, with riots taking place regularly. He was encouraged to get a respectable job, in his case as a teacher. “That’s what your parents said to you: ‘You’ve got to work for the government because it gives you security. You get a housing subsidy.'” But the sporting bug in him fought those urgings. “Cricket was what I wanted to do. I wanted to play professionally.”Conrad could have gone to the other side of the country, because he was offered a scholarship at Natal University, but he had a desire to play for Western Province, so his only choice was to “go back to the non-racial side”, which meant approaching Howa again.Sedick, banned by Howa in the past, went with his son to see if they could come to an agreement. To Conrad’s surprise, they did. “After all the animosity, they embraced each other like long-lost father and son,” he said. “I was standing there and thought they hated each other, but that was the greatness of Mr Howa. He was very principled. He wasn’t going to back down on his beliefs. He coined the phrase ‘No normal sport in an abnormal society.'”A young Shukri (front left) with his family•Courtesy Conrad familyIt was a mantra the Conrads had come around to. “We probably didn’t see the wood for the trees. Everything was about cricket at the time. Looking back, would I do things differently? Would my dad do things differently? I think the answer is an unequivocal yes. Knowing what we know, maybe we were ignorant or maybe we just chose not to see some of the goings-on back in the day.”Conrad’s career as a top-order batter never really took off. “I always wanted to play in quite an aggressive way, sometimes too aggressive. I wait all week to play cricket. I don’t want that to be boring too, you know.”After unity in 1992, he played a little bit in the Western Province B side but “probably realised this ship had sailed”. While in his job as an English teacher, he also started coaching, and travelled between South Africa, England and the Netherlands for gigs until the headmaster of his school gave him an ultimatum.”He said to me, ‘You’ve got to decide now, you can’t be upping and coming back and parachuting in whenever you feel like’, so I gave up teaching after ten years. Then I got a call from Ziggy Wadvalla.”Wadvalla, the CEO of Gauteng Cricket, was looking for a coach for the provincial B side. Conrad got the job and spent three years there, turning the team around and winning the provincial one-day cup in 2003-04.He was also heavily involved in development at the Soweto Cricket Club. “A lot of the young players in Soweto were starting to come through the system. Enoch [Nkwe, South Africa’s current director of national teams and high performance] came maybe a year or two into my time. Soweto Cricket was a vibrant place. Things were happening there.”In this World Test Championship cycle, South Africa have won eight out of 13 Tests so far•AFP/Getty ImagesWith a growing reputation as a coach who could make things happen, Conrad was lured back to his home team, Western Province, and coached them for five seasons, winning trophies in all three formats: the 2006-07 one-day cup, the 2008-09 T20 competition, and the 2009-10 first-class title. From there he moved on to Cricket South Africa’s high-performance centre and national academy, where many of the current national players passed through. But although Conrad enjoyed working in player development, and was doing a bit of commentary on the side, he also “missed competition”.In 2022, he took over the national Under-19 side ahead of their World Cup. South Africa did not do especially well in the tournament but Dewald Brevis finished as the tournament’s leading run-scorer, and 15-year old Kwena Maphaka was hand-picked by Conrad as a future star. Later that year, when the national men’s job was advertised, Conrad, who had applied for it unsuccessfully before, decided not only to give it a “last shot” but also to double his chances.”Enoch had decided they would split the roles into red and white ball, and I thought to myself, I am going to throw the hat in both rings,” Conrad said. “I would really have liked the white ball. It’s an exciting format. But in chatting to Enoch, I realise there was probably a lot more graft to be done in this [Test] space. The team needed to be reshaped, remoulded and shifted in a different direction. We’ve always had good players. We’ve always had talented players and we will always have.”Initially Conrad actually got both red- and white-ball gigs, albeit temporarily, because he was asked to also oversee South Africa’s ODI series against England, which was crucial to their 2023 World Cup qualification hopes. Not only did they win 2-1 but captain Temba Bavuma, who had endured a torrid 2022 T20 World Cup campaign, played himself back into form and scored the hundred that sealed the series. That knock came after a well-documented conversation with Conrad in Bloemfontein, and it helped the coach with his decision to make Bavuma his Test captain.Sedick Conrad, Shukri’s father, played for South Africa’s Invitational XI against a touring international team in 1975•Courtesy Conrad family”I was pretty clear in terms of who was going to be the captain,” Conrad said. “It was always going to be Temba, and [the conversation in Bloemfontein] played a part. That just solidified everything but we needed to go in a new direction with new ideas.”Conrad brought plenty of those. As sole selector, his first series, at home against West Indies in February 2023, included sweeping changes, such as dropping Kyle Verreynne, Lungi Ngidi, Sarel Erwee and Rassie van der Dussen.”I looked at the type of cricket I always wanted to play and at the time [Heinrich] Klaasen had been with me at the national academy and he was playing really well in white-ball cricket. That was the type of cricket we wanted to play as well. It was tough on guys like Kyle, Khaya [Zondo], Sarel and Rassie,” he said. “But I was always going to select the character. I think we’ve all got ability. There’s some technical things here and there, but for me, the character was important and the test of the character was how a lot of those guys were going to come back if any of them were going to come back.”Verreynne has made a comeback and has credited Conrad for his transparency and backing. Ngidi could well do the same, although he is recovering from a groin injury. The rest may not, but Conrad has continued to make bold choices, picking 35-year-old Dane Paterson, who bowls in the 120s has the ability to get the ball to nip around, and Corbin Bosch, an allrounder who thought his opportunity had passed him by. He has also given chances to Maphaka, still raw and learning, and extended runs to David Bedingham and Tony de Zorzi.Conrad has a broad and deep knowledge of South Africa’s divided history and the politics entwined in its sport, and understands his responsibility to all South Africans – to put together a team that is both representative and that wins.Kagiso Rabada is South Africa’s leading wicket-taker of the WTC cycle, averaging 18.75 for his 41 wickets in nine Tests•Phill Magakoe/AFP/Getty ImagesSo far, he has largely got that right.”When you’re involved in South African sport, it is not an achievement to get a fully representative side there. That’s part of what you’re supposed to do. You understand the past. You understand what this country’s gone through. You understand the issues. When, in our country, the minority are walking for pleasure but the majority are still walking to get to work, you know you’ve still got a long way to go and we embrace that. We’re always looking to get our national side fully representative. And when you sign up for South Africa, you also want to make every single person in the country proud, and they must have a line of sight where they can say, ‘Well, I can dream about getting there.’ And hopefully we’re doing that.”From one victory in their first four Tests of this WTC cycle to a place in the final, Conrad has taken the team to heights that did not seem possible when he took over. It’s not the South African way to dream of more, because of how much disappointment has stalked them in knockouts and, more recently, in finals. But Conrad has a new South African way.”Just dream a bit,” he said. “Allow yourself to dream. There’s no harm, right? Some of the best things happen in dreams. And once you’ve got that little picture, let’s start working on a little map as to how we’re going to get there. We know it’s going to be tough, but we’re starting to do tough. We’ve got to do tough better, but we’re starting to do tough now.”

Karthik Krishnaswamy and Alex Malcolm are back to discuss all that happened in the second Border-Gavaskar Test

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Feb-2023A dramatic second-innings Australian collapse in Delhi – they lost their last eight wickets for 28 runs – meant India have the Border-Gavaskar Trophy all wrapped up with two Tests to play (as holders, they retain the trophy even if the series is drawn). This, despite the hosts having looked vulnerable at various points during the match. Where did the match turn (no pun intended)? Karthik Krishnaswamy and Alex Malcolm look back.