Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Monday appointed two different coaches for their red-ball and white-ball teams. The board have named Shukri Conrad as the head coach of their Test team, while Rob Walter will be in charge of the ODI and T20I teams.
The permanent coaching role was vacant in South Africa after Mark Boucher resigned from his job following Proteas’ shocking exit at the T20 World Cup last year.
Both Conrad and Walker have worked extensively in South Africa’s domestic circuit.
Conrad has previously coached South Africa Under-19s and was the senior team’s Strength and Conditioning coach between 2009 and 2013. On the other hand, Walker also has an IPL experience with Chennai Super Kings, Pune Warriors India and Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals).
CSA has even reduced their team’s number of fixtures in order to accommodate its new T20 league, SA20, which started earlier this month and to focus on Test cricket.
“We haven’t relegated Test cricket to the margins,” said CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki in his statement. “We want to invest to get Test cricket back to the standard we expect.”
The Proteas will play a two-match Test series against West Indies in February but will not feature in another Test until they host India in December.