Elgar, initially having no retirement plans, negotiated an arrangement with Conrad to participate in a final series before his home fans.
Proteas red-ball coach Shukri Conrad informed Dean Elgar that he would not be part of the recent Test series against India. Elgar’s choice to retire from Test cricket stemmed from extensive discussions with Conrad, who lauded the player despite Elgar being relinquished of his captaincy when Conrad assumed the role.
According to South African daily Rapport, Elgar, initially having no retirement plans, negotiated an arrangement with Conrad to participate in a final series before his home fans.
The top run-scorer in SA’s 4-Day Domestic Series this season contributed significantly by scoring 185 in the first Test against India in Centurion, leading the team to an innings victory after taking over the captaincy from the injured Temba Bavuma. Following Bavuma’s absence, Elgar continued to captain the team in the second Test at Newlands.
Reportedly, some senior Proteas players inquired after the Newlands Test about Elgar reconsidering his retirement decision.
Elgar, who recently signed a three-year contract with the English county club Essex felt he had been treated poorly and remained resolute in his retirement decision. Some of what has been written in the media has come from sources who revealed Elgar and Conrad’s relationship is not as good as Conrad made it sound.
On Friday, he signed a three-year contract with English county club Essex.
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Speaking prior to the Centurion Test on Dean’s decision, Conrad had said, “The fact that we haven’t got much Test cricket is part of the reason we arrived at the decision we arrived at. Ideally, we would like to play more Test cricket because the more Test cricket we play, the more opportunity we’ve got to blood cricketers for the future. If we have fewer Tests, that means I’ve got very little opportunity to blood young cricketers. Sometimes we arrive at decisions like Dean’s now because of a lack of cricket and a lack of opportunity to blood young players.”
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