Don't Play a Lot of Test Matches: South Africa Coach Shukri Conrad on Dean Elgar's Retirement

South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad said that Dean Elgar’s retirement may have been prompted by a lack of Test matches for the South Africa.

“It wasn’t because we just had four Test matches and Dean decided to retire. It was a conversation that Dean and I had. The fact that we don’t play a lot of Test matches is part of the reason that we arrived at the decision that we arrived at,” Conrad was quoted as saying by PTI.

However, Conrad was surprised that South African media knew that he and Elgar had a conversation on the latter’s future.

“The conversation and outcome have been exactly what Dean and I had discussed. It was surprising to me that a certain journalist had the wind of it. But no surprise to me that Dean has decided to retire against India,” the coach added.

Elgar, who has scored more than 5,000 runs with 13 centuries in his 84 tests, will play his final test at Newlands in Cape Town starting Jan. 3.

“As they say, ‘all good things come to an end’, and the Indian home series will be my last, as I have made the decision to retire from our beautiful game,” the 36-year-old Elgar said. “The Cape Town Test will be my last. My favourite stadium in the world. A place I scored my first Test run against New Zealand and hopefully my last too.”

Elgar will finish a good career at 86 Test matches, which includes the upcoming two against India. The former Proteas skipper, who has 5146 runs with 13 hundreds and an average of just under 38, isn’t exactly finding motivation to continue playing, having played just four Tests in a single year.

He is South Africa’s eighth highest scorer in tests and will continue playing first class cricket though.

Elgar was elevated to captain in March 2021, replacing Quentin de Kock, and led the Proteas to series wins in the West Indies and at home against India, and a draw in New Zealand.

A nightmare tour of Australia 12 months ago, where the opener averaged just 9.33 runs across the series, saw Elgar replaced as captain by Temba Bavuma in February.

(With inputs from Agencies)