It's a muggy November day in the nets at Kingsmead last year, and someone is telling Shukri Conrad a story about an article in Esquire magazine published that September. The piece is headlined "Can Sir Jim Ratcliffe Save Manchester United?"

The article, written by Stuart McGurk, is about Ratcliffe becoming a minority shareholder in the club in February 2024, and taking control of its football operations. The kernel of the story Conrad is being told is of a visit that Ratcliffe and some of his most trusted associates, including one named David Brailsford, paid to former manager Alex Ferguson in an attempt to get a grip on the challenges of turning around the once mighty, since faded club.

McGurk writes: "Discussing the art of having everyone committed to a common cause, Ferguson leant over to issue some sage advice: 'Dave, it's simple - just get rid of the c***s.'"

Conrad, who is sitting in the dugout, leans sideways and chortles - not so much at the deployment of a taboo expletive but at the reality that all coaches, no matter how famous or accomplished, dare not abide the poison of pessimism.

It's difficult to imagine bleakness surviving, nevermind taking hold, in Conrad's dressingroom. He is the epitome of optimism. The clear-eyed kind, not the fairytale stuff. There is a lightness and brightness about him that defies despondency.

Admittedly there was much to be light and bright about at Eden Gardens on Sunday in the giddy afterglow of South Africa defending 123 to beat India by 30 runs in the first Test. Even so, Conrad's resounding endorsement of the bigger picture behind his team's success bears airing:

"We've really tried to create an environment where ... South Africa is a diverse country with diverse cultures. This changeroom has embraced all of it. We've allowed people to be exactly who they are.

"Yes, we operate with a set of norms and ethics and values as to what's expected of an elite side. But they're like a bunch of mates who play together. They don't give up. They practise hard. They party hard. More importantly, we've allowed a culture to develop organically rather than by sticking to a few points about how we want to do things.

"We've got great leaders. Temba [Bavuma], a quiet leader, he does it with a bat. And then we've got some serious statesmen, like KG [Kagiso Rabada]. Aiden Markram does wonders in that changeroom. So does Kesh [Keshav Maharaj], and some of the older folk.

"There's no recipe. It's about allowing things to unfold organically and showing faith in the players. It's about listening when they say this is how we want to do things. And I'm going to back you to go and play. Let's find a way. Let's never give up. All you can ever ask of a team is to fight for every run and stay in the battle. This side does that."

Put that on your CV. But something's missing, as there is from all of Conrad's interactions with the press. Listening to him, you might think he had nothing to do with his team winning. If Conrad has an ego, he hides it well. Happily, because he has been involved in so many avenues of the game in South Africa for so long, there are plenty of people around who are ready to talk him up.

Like Stephen Cook, who early in his senior career encountered Conrad when he was head coach of what were then called the Highveld Strikers - who became the Lions, and are now Gauteng - from 2002/03 to 2004/05.

"He's just transparent," Cook told Cricbuzz. "He says what he means and means what he says. For a young guy who was trying to forge his way, trying to work out what this professional game was all about, that was refreshing and empowering.

"You knew where you stood. You knew what you needed to do. It was something I didn't always get from coaches. That happens to a lot of players - you're left out of teams and you don't know what you need to do to get back in.

"He was always very clear about that. 'This is where you've fallen short. If this gets better, then this is how you get back in.' And then, when you did what was needed, he backed it up and picked you."

Cook saw in Conrad a touch of the genius of Rassie Erasmus, the unconventional maverick who has guided the Springboks to consecutive triumphs in rugby's World Cup.

"Shuks has that mercurial nature where you never quite know what his next move is going to be. That's been the beauty of his tenure with the Proteas. He has that element about him, and that's where he and Rassie are similar.

"That unpredictability is really off-putting for opponents. You can never be sure - is [Wiaan] Mulder going to bat three? Is [Senuran] Muthusamy going to play?"

And, also like the Boks, what can look chaotic and freewheeling is anything but.

"As much as it might seem disjointed from the outside, it's very measured and communicated well on the inside; that's his superpower," Cook said. "From a technical point of view he's probably no better or worse than a lot of other coaches. It's in man management and honesty that he's really good."

Conrad was a seam-bowling allrounder who played 14 first-class matches, the last of them in January 1995. Had his career started then - just more than three years after South Africa had emerged from isolation - he might have had a shot at an international career.

But Cook saw the silver lining in that: "He's a normal guy. Maybe it's because he didn't play international cricket and he doesn't have that pretence about him. He can be who he is. He doesn't pretend to know everything."

Cook had respect for Conrad's decades in the coaching trenches: "He's done it the hard way. He had to build it up from the very beginning. It didn't come easily. He's been through the ranks. A lot of his players have known him for a long period of time.

"Yes, there are guys who go straight from coaching into playing and do a really good job. But I appreciate a coach who builds his way up, from bowling balls underarm to 10-year-old kids to eventually becoming the national coach. That's essentially the journey he's followed."

Cook's first-class span of 229 matches, 11 of them Tests, ended under Conrad in a home series between South Africa A and India A in August 2017.

"I got to see it from the other point of view compared to when I was starting out," Cook said. "He wasn't going to try and change you or change your mind. He was just going to create a really good environment. It was in your hands. If you continue having a good attitude, things would be cool. But if you're negative there's no place for you, which is also cool."

Thus Conrad bookended Cook's career, which ended more than eight years ago. But what Cook said about him holds true today. That kind of consistency rings of integrity.

"He's found a way that works," Cook said. "It's almost a character thing rather than a cricket coach thing. It's not always about the technical aspects. Yes, there are things that matter in that regard. But he knows his gaps and he brings in the right experts and assistants as and when they are required. That's a mature coach.

"I worry about coaches who don't seek outside help, who think they know everything. I always think, 'OK. All the eggs are in one basket here; this could go horribly wrong.' With him you never feel that."

Cook spoke from personal experience. His father is Jimmy Cook, the former Test opener.

"My dad was my absolute go-to guru coach. Some coaches during my career found it very difficult that I had this external person, who happened to be my dad, who was the guy I would go to if things were going to pieces.

"Shukri knew that was how I operated and he was fine with it. He wasn't threatened. He kind of went, 'If on a Thursday evening he goes down to the indoor nets with his dad and a bowling machine, I'm not going to get in the way. Why would I if I get a better player out of that?' Other coaches, you could see, were very put out."

Unlike Conrad, Jimmy Cook did have an international career. Albeit brief - had he come up after apartheid, rather than in 1972/73, he would have played far more than his three Tests and four ODIs.

Conrad might have resented Cook senior for that, and for meddling with his players, and for the privilege that allowed him to pursue a long and successful career with Somerset. He didn't. He found a way. He is, maybe, among those rare people who, despite what has and is happening, focuses on what might yet be able to happen to make the world a better place.

Beyond Conrad's selflessness and cheerfulness, that takes courage. Especially for black and brown South Africans of his generation. Those of us who are not black or brown will struggle to understand that. But we cannot help respect and admire it. And be grateful that Conrad has that courage.