South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad took a sly dig at T20 World Cup broadcasters Star Sports over the infamous cupcake advertisement. Speaking ahead of their semi-final clash against New Zealand, Conrad said that the team quite enjoyed the promo.
Star Sports found themselves at the centre of controversy after they put out a derogatory ad insinuating that South Africa had a habit of failing in world tournaments. In the advertisement, a South African and an Indian fan were seen chasing a piece of pastry, with the Proteas fan beating the Indian fan to it. In a condescending manner, the Indian fan then told the South African supporter that they should be happy with a cupcake because they never quite had it in them to win the actual trophy.
After the promotional was aired, South Africa hammered India at the Narendra Modi Stadium, prompting the broadcaster to delete the ad from all platforms. Even before that, there was massive backlash from cricket fans in India and around the world, who called out Star Sports’ narrow mindset.
“There’s always pressure. I think it’s what you do with that pressure and how you shift the pressure. As for the C word, I think there’s another one for it — cupcakes. I thought we kind of enjoyed that,” Conrad said following South Africa’s win over Zimbabwe in their final Super 8 game.
South Africa are the only unbeaten side in the competition. They have beaten strong teams like Afghanistan, India and West Indies en route to the semi-final and now face a tricky New Zealand side at Eden Gardens. Conrad said that there was no added pressure despite them starting as favourites. The fact that they were in the semi-final was pressure enough for the side.
“Whether we start as favourites, probably because we’re the only unbeaten side in the competition. But I don’t know if that adds to the pressure. I think the semi-final is pressure enough,” he said.
“Playing a top side like New Zealand is pressure enough. So there’s no added pressure, and I’m glad that we’re favourites because I’ve always felt that, as a South African team, you want to be able to play as favourites because it’s easy being an underdog,” he added.
The head coach was confident in his team and methods, stating that if South Africa continued to do what they had done in the tournament so far, they would likely reach the final, set to be held in Ahmedabad on March 8.
South Africa have played the majority of their matches in Ahmedabad and know the conditions well. Conrad joked about the same and said that, hopefully, they would get to play the final at their “home ground”.
“And yeah, hopefully that will give us the result on Wednesday and then on to our home ground in Ahmedabad (for the final),” he said.
South Africa play New Zealand on March 4 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
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