South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad stirred a controversy by making use of the word “grovel” during the recently held Test series against India.

Addressing the media after the fourth day’s play in Guwahati Test, Conrad declared, “we wanted to make India grovel” as he defended the Proteas’ late declaration call.

The remark drew widespread backlash due to its historical context, with former cricketers like Anil Kumble, Sunil Gavaskar and Dale Steyn expressing disappointment by the phrasing.

Notably, the term “grovel” was infamously used by former England skipper Tony Grieg before a Test series against the West Indies in 1976. Grieg had said that he wanted to make the West Indies grovel, which riled up the Caribbean team so much that they ended up thrashing England in their den by 3-0 in a five-match series.

After his team conceded the ODI series to India, Conrad on Saturday (December 6) clarified that he did not intend "to cause any malice" with his comment. The seasoned coach also admitted that he could have "chosen a better word".

Speaking after the match in the post-match presser, Conrad said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, "On reflection, it was never my intention to cause any malice or not be humble about anything. I could have chosen a better word because it left it open for people to put their own context to it. The only context I ever intended it to be was that we wanted India to spend a lot of time in the field and make it really tough for them. I have got to be careful what word I use here now because context could be attached to that as well."

"It is really a pity. Maybe what it did do was spice up the ODI series, and especially with India winning that now, the T20 series becomes even more so. The unfortunate thing is, with all the noise that that word caused, I still think it is a perfectly good English word, but I just left it open to too many interpretations. What it did was take away the gloss of what was a really special win for our Test team. It is unfortunate, but there was definitely no malice intended," he added.

Moreover, Shukri Conrad emphasized that being humble is the "cornerstone" for all of the South African teams.

"It is unfortunate that the noise and the talk became around the coach. People should not really even know who the coach is. It should be about the players. That is the unfortunate bit, and I would like to think that it is going to be put to bed now," he remarked.

While South Africa inflicted 2-0 whitewash on India in the Test series, the hosts bounced back to clinch the ODI series 2-1.

The two teams will now square off in a five-match T20I series, starting on Tuesday (December 9) in Cuttack.