How Conrad plans to handle the tangle of club and country

Shukri Conrad is now in control of all three of South Africa's men's national teams. But he will soon have less authority over how he does his job than when he was the Test coach only.

CSA announced on Friday that Conrad had been appointed coach in all three formats. He replaces Rob Walter, whose resignation from the white-ball role became effective at the end of April.

Between them, Walter and Conrad took South Africa to their first men's World Cup final - the 2024 T20I version - and to the WTC final, against Australia at Lord's next month. Importantly, they were able to select their own squads and XIs. There were no selectors, a departure from the past.

In their apparently infinite ability to fix what isn't broken, to get in the way of progress, to wilfully turn away from success, CSA's board have decided the coach will have to deal with a selection convenor in future. Applications for the position closed on April 29.

"I don't think the words 'dealing with a convener' is the right narrative we want to project," Conrad told a press conference on Friday. "Hopefully it will be a like-minded person who has South African cricket and, more importantly, the Proteas as first prize all the time."

Enoch Nkwe, CSA's director of national teams and high performance, described the backtrack on selectors as an opportunity to "support the coaches as much as possible, and have more eyes obviously on the ground as the coaches are going to be focusing on performance".

Conrad was more forthright on the issue of the availability of his best players, a challenge for mid-market entities of the cricket industry like CSA in an age when franchise leagues pay exponentially better for exponentially less time, effort and pressure than the international game demands.

"We're going to put out the best Proteas side every time we play," Conrad said. "I've had conversations with the players - all-format players and guys who only play the one format who are contracted to us - that when the Proteas play, there's an expectation that they'll play for South Africa."

How Conrad is going to pull that off remains to be seen. CSA's own league, the SA20, hit his Test side hard in February 2024. The tournament clashed with a series in New Zealand, where a severely weakened South Africa side were hammered 2-0.

Walter's teams were frequently affected by his star players' absence because of franchise commitments. Consequently, Walter capped 14 ODI and 13 T20I players in his 21-month tenure. In bilateral series under him, South Africa won 10 of the 21 completed ODIs and six of their 22 T20Is.

But Conrad stuck to his guns on Friday: "The Proteas will never be a franchise team. The Proteas will never be a league. Nor will they be a convenience. This is part of building a culture and building an environment that players want to be part of. And every player is committed to that and wants to be part of it. I've got a pretty good idea of who the players are who can represent South Africa at World Cups and finals in the Test space. And those players will be called on whenever the Proteas play.

"It's important that we create this culture, this environment, with all of our best players present, so that when it comes to tournament cricket it's not a surprise - here comes a couple of our marquee players who we haven't seen for the entire year. Now they parachute into a World Cup.

"This comes with careful planning and buy-in from everyone. Our all-format players are fully supportive of what I want to do. Going down this road cleans up everything. It makes it less messy. There is less talk that can be polarising. It's clear black and white.

"If you choose not to play for South Africa, then we go down that road. Where rest periods are emphasised or suggested, they will be exactly that - a rest period. You can't then go play in a league.

"But we still want our guys to gain experience by playing in leagues when the Proteas are not playing. When South Africa are not playing, the guys are going to be free to play wherever they want because we want them to maximise their earning potential and come back to South Africa as better cricketers."

Told his approach sounded like an ultimatum, Conrad said: "It's not a matter of ultimatums. We don't work with ultimatums. We work with good conversations. The top priority is that the Proteas should always be the most important team. I can tell you that every player I've spoken to puts the Proteas first. There won't be an ultimatum."

That level of clarity is good. Less obvious is how Conrad is going to put his plan into effective action. The WTC final is the first of 29 internationals his teams will play across the formats from June 11 to December 19. Their visit to Zimbabwe for two Tests and a T20I tri-series, and the six T20Is and six ODIs they will play in Australia and England, will keep them busy from June 28 to September 14.

But the MLC, the Hundred and the CPL will be played from June 13 to September 22. What to do about Ryan Rickelton and Marco Jansen, who have been retained by their MLC franchises, and David Miller, who is due to play in the Hundred?

How Conrad will handle that tangle promises to be fascinating to watch. He revitalised the Test team with innovative, brave thinking that his players took to with enthusiasm. If anyone can win back some of the ground countries have lost to clubs, it's him.

Nkwe would seem to concur. Asked if he had considered anyone else for the all-format coach's job, he said: "I didn't. It was coach Shukri from the get-go."