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Shukri Conrad & Rob Walter Set To Become South Africa’s Proteas Head Coaches

According to a newspaper report, Rob Walter and Shukri Conrad will be named coaches of the Proteas starting Monday. Conrad was most recently in charge of South Africa’s Under-19 team, while Walter will be moving from his position as the head coach for Central Districts in New Zealand.

Although it is not clear who will coach which format of the game, Sunday Afrikaans paper believes Conrad will be the Test mentor and Walter will handle the shorter formats. Three World Cup Super League matches will be played between South Africa and England starting January 27.

Along with Adrian Birrell and Malibongwe Maketa, who were the caretaker coaches for the recent trip to Australia, Richard Pybus, Lance Kluesner and Lance Kluesner, the pair were all vying for these roles. Lance Klusener was the frontrunner to the position but he withdrew his application Monday in order to concentrate on his work in T20 leagues.

For now, the Test coach will be working less at international level as South Africa has hopes of reaching the World Test Championship final despite losing in Australia and England. However, South Africa currently only has two matches, at home to West Indies, in the next 11 month. The Test coach will be responsible for overseeing the first-class system during the long gaps between Tests.

Enoch Nkwe (CSA director of cricket) will oversee the appointments. This follows Mark Boucher’s resignation. South Africa’s men’s teams will be working under a split coaching setup. South Africa tried something similar a decade ago when Russell Domingo (then Gary Kirsten’s assistant) was put in charge T20 side with Kirsten remaining the Test and ODI coaches. Domingo succeeded Kirsten as all-format coach six months later.

Walter was the Proteas conditioning and fitness coach for six years, before he coached the Titans from 2013 to 2016. Walter has been a coach in New Zealand’s domestic program for six years before he took the New Zealand A team to India. During his time in Pretoria, he won four domestic trophies.

Conrad has been a coach domestically with the Cape Cobas and the Lions as well as the South African Under-19 team that featured star batter Dewald Brevis.

Cricket South Africa (CSA), will make the official announcement at 10:00 AM on Monday.

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