Shukri Conrad has had more jobs in South African cricket than many of us might have in our entire working lives. He played at club and provincial level and has coached in avenues great and small. His father, Dickie Conrad, was also wedded to the game. Conrad and cricket have been closely connected for all of his 59 years.

What was he doing during the 2003 men’s World Cup, which was played in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya?

“I was in the studio commentating,” Conrad told Cricbuzz. “And coaching the Lions.”

The latter meant his home ground was the Wanderers, where Australia and India played the final on March 23 2003. As the resident head coach Conrad would have had an inside track on securing a ticket for the biggest game in cricket. He duly procured a fistful of the precious things. But he wasn’t at the Wanderers on March 23, and not because he was holed up in a television studio far from the scene.

“I had so much family who had come up from Cape Town that I had to give all my tickets away,” Conrad said.

There’s much to be gleaned about Conrad from that simple statement. Selflessness, yes. But also practicality and dispassion, qualities as rare as they are valuable in someone so punishingly passionate about cricket.

So it’s good to know that, when the men’s World Cup returns to Africa for the first time since 2003 in October and November next year, Conrad won’t be in a studio or watching from home. He will be in the dugout trying to accomplish what none of his predecessors as South Africa’s coach have done: win the bloody thing already.

After missing the first four editions of the tournament thanks to apartheid, the Proteas have flattered to deceive in all of their nine bids to win the trophy. Sometimes they have arrived as favourites, other times as serious contenders. Never have they made it to the final. That’s despite reaching two quarterfinals and five semifinals. Infamously they won only won of those seven knockout matches.

South Africans will hope their team have made the required shifts from all that by the time they start their 10th campaign. Conrad burst that bubble conditionally: “I don’t know if South African cricket has changed much; we still display the same characteristics of the sides gone by.

“But I think, especially with the younger bunch, there’s a lot more freedom in terms of the way they play. Maybe they’re not as shackled as some of the older guys and the guys of yesteryear have been.Maybe that’s been forced on us by T20 cricket.There’s a freer outlook in terms of how we want to play. But, essentially, nothing’s changed.”

Some will be disappointed by that. Clearly what South Africa have tried hasn’t worked. So how could Conrad think more of the same will have a different outcome

Because he knows it can. Under Conrad, Temba Bavuma’s team played cricket easily recognisable as South African to win the WTC last year. An all-seam attack and gritty rather than glamorous batting helped them beat Pakistan by two wickets in Centurion in December 2024 to seal their place in the final. They took Pakistan’s last six wickets for 65 but then shambled to 19/3 in search of a target of 148. In the decider at Lord’s in June they overcame a first-innings deficit of 74 to beat Australia by five wickets.

Fiery fast bowling, flinty batting and fighting back from desperate positions capture the essence of the way South Africa have always played. The difference was this time it worked when it mattered. As it might have done several more times by now had the WTC been around for longer than its starting date of August 2019.

Winning it, Conrad said, “gives you a belief” that South Africa are championship material; that they are not cursed by some kind of cruel exceptionalism that decrees global trophies are not for them.

“Probably the game at Centurion was the biggest one for me,” Conrad said.“That’s where we were really tested. The ebbing and flowing of that last day and us getting there told us that, when confronted with clutch moments, we are able to respond.”

But Conrad knew winning the WTC wasn’t a magic spell that would open the doors to World Cup glory. South Africans who thought so were rudely disabused of the notion at the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and India in February and March this year.

Their team marched into the semifinals as one of only two unbeaten teams, alongside India were the others, among the 20 sides who started the tournament. Only to suffer an abysmal failure to launch against New Zealand and crash to abject defeat by nine wickets. Conrad was the head coach then too.

“We’re certainly not going into the World Cup feeling complacent. Yes, there’s going to be a sense of achievement [earned by winning the WTC], but we want that to be the springboard for what can be done in future.”

Shukri Conrad has had many jobs in South African cricket. Should he win the World Cup he will never need to look for another.