By Admin 
South Africa coach Shukri Conrad sparked controversy on Tuesday by saying that he wanted to make India “grovel” on the field.
The response came when he was asked about the team’s decision to bat almost the entirety of day four, resulting in a delayed declaration.
“We wanted India to spend as much time on their feet out in the field. We wanted them to really grovel, to steal a phrase, bat them completely out of the game and then say to them, ‘come and survive on the last day and an hour this evening,’” said Conrad.
While Conrad’s words did not appear to come from a place of malaise, the term ‘grovel’ was once part of a raging racism controversy back in 1976, when the then England captain Tony Greig said he wanted to make the West Indies team “grovel”.
It lit a spark among the Windies, for it came from a white English skipper who grew up in apartheid South Africa. The Caribbean team, with its feared pace attack, went on to win the series 3-0.