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Australia v SA: Fuzzy priorities and an imperfect WTC final
Australia and South Africa face off in the WTC final amid concerns over Test cricket's viability and player retirements affecting competition.
Mumbai: When Australia began their World Test Championship (WTC) campaign, David Warner was still around facing James Anderson and Stuart Broad. That feels like such a long time ago when you consider how Warner has moved on to become a T20 freelancer. Anderson will soon have a trophy named after him to settle retirement pangs, if any. With Broad, he’s hopped to the South African corner as bowling consultant – to offer a crash course on beating old enemy Australia.
The length of the playing cycle, however, is the least prickly of issues with WTC. Pat Cummins and Temba Bavuma posed with the WTC mace made of sterling silver and gold plates at Lord’s on match eve amid some disquiet over their contrasting lead-ins to make the final. Australia (19 Tests) survived the rigours of two five-Test series against England and India, while South Africa qualified with bare minimum participation (12 Tests).
“I’m tired of speaking about it, to be honest. We’re here and that’s all that matters. We get a chance to walk away as the World Test champions,” said Shukri Conrad, South Africa head coach.
Conrad is right. South Africa are not to blame. They have played by the rules. Just like India was not at fault that their Champions Trophy schedule was less punishing than the other teams. The complex framework within which many of cricket’s world events are currently staged with every format grappling for space with the franchise calendar means there’s no perfect solution in sight.
Test retirements
The SA coach took charge only recently. From Quinton de Kock in the previous cycle to Heinrich Klaasen in the current one, Test retirements have become regular. It just happened that South Africa found a way to register a flurry of wins towards the end of the WTC cycle. They had even stopped pushing and virtually gifted wins to New Zealand as a severely depleted squad was fielded for the away series in February 2024 while the cream of their talent played SA20.
“Whenever I go into the stores here, you start calculating what it costs you. So, it’s no surprise we can’t compete,” Conrad was blunt about not being able to pay their Test players. “So, it’s about prioritising certain tours where we could give them a break and ensure that some conditioning is able to happen. Whenever we’re not playing, there’s an opportunity for them to earn some USD.”
The question is whether Test cricket is in a better place than it was when this WTC cycle began two years back. It’s still Australia, England and India who can afford to play five-Test series, home-and-away and make money out of it.
But one can argue that if not for WTC, Cricket South Africa would possibly not even make the attempt to stage Test cricket, perhaps leading to a lost generation of Test talent for a cricket nation which has been among the most competitive since the return after the end of Apartheid.
There has been some talk that qualifying for the Lord’s final would lead to a revival of interest in Test cricket in South Africa. But there’s nothing in the Future Tours Program that suggests this. There is no home Test scheduled for another year in South Africa.
Of late, Zimbabwe are playing a lot more Test cricket. And they don’t rank anywhere among the Test elite who compete for WTC. They are among the 12 Test teams though, which is not a notional privilege. Test status brings substantially more ICC funding compared to Associate teams.
That is what it boils down to. Unless national boards can make Test cricket viable, they won’t see the point in playing it. The depleting pool of international talent will make things dire. The hope of an evenly spread Test calendar to determine WTC finalists is delusionary in the current scheme of things.
One-off final
The good thing about a one-off final is that these persistent problems matter very little. Both Australia and South Africa will enter the field on Wednesday coming off very little red-ball cricket.
As the Dukes ball tends to swing throughout the day, a sharp burst from Kagiso Rabada – he should be determined after his drug misadventure – and who knows? It wouldn’t matter that Australia’s total squad experience is double that of their opponents and that they are defending champions.
“They’re here for a reason,” Steve Smith, Australia vice-captain said about the Proteas. “I don’t know how the system works with the percentages and what have you, but they’re here, they’re in the top two, and they’re a good side.”
