NEIL MANTHORP: This year is very much a limited-overs one for the Proteas

In the past two decades of the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings only three teams from the “small seven” nations have dared to usurp the big three from the No 1 spot, and Pakistan managed it for just two months so their time at the top can be regarded as more of a visit than a stay.    

Australia stayed at No 1 for 74 months between 2003 and 2009 before SA signed the visitors book for three brief months. It wasn’t until Graeme Smith’s great team of 2012 rose to the top that the hegemony of the big three was truly challenged. England had been the No 1 ranked team for 12 months before the Proteas beat them at home.    

India have been top of the pile six times in those two decades, staying there for the longest period between 2016 and 2020 courtesy, largely, of their indomitable record at home. The way the international Test calendar has been set up for the next four years it is going to be virtually impossible for any nation outside the big three to seriously challenge again for the top ranking. They simply don’t play enough fixtures.    

But they can challenge for the World Test Championship, provided it still exists. England and Australia can barely see beyond their Ashes obsession and have only a passing interest in the concept. India are clearly keen to win it but, should they do so in this year’s final against Australia at the Oval in June, they too may lose interest. In which case the Test Championship will fade to an inconsequence.   

Proteas Test coach Shukri Conrad is hopeful that more fixtures can be arranged, but they are a loss-leader for Cricket SA and, without context, they may struggle to attract spectator and sponsor interest. The answer, of course, is for the global game to agree to a more evenly balanced Test Championship with each nation playing each other, at home in one cycle and away in the next.    

“There is no chance of that happening now, I believe,” former England captain and now acclaimed writer Michael Atherton said last week. “There were several very good proposals put forward years ago and it is still theoretically possible to fit them into the calendar, even with all the domestic T20 leagues, but there needs to be a will for there to be a way and that clearly is not the case among the boards with the most influence.”    

Having failed to reach this year’s WTC final, Conrad will simply have to work with what he has for the 2023-2025 event, starting with two home Tests against India at the end of the year and two in New Zealand at the end of next summer. Each Test and every series should have the intensity of a semifinal about them and, much as the players will have to concentrate on “the next ball”, the coach and his team must focus on the bigger, long-term picture. The future of the format could easily be at stake.  

The new white-ball coach, Rob Walter, has more immediate concerns. Following this month’s six matches against the West Indies, three in each format, he will oversee the two ODIs against the Netherlands that could decide whether SA qualifies automatically for the World Cup in India. (They may still have to prequalify in the unlikely event that Sri Lanka win 3-0 in New Zealand.)    

Then it will be just another four months before Australia arrive on these shores for an unprecedented eight-match tour in August and September, with five ODIs and three T20Is serving as a financial replacement for the three-Test tour they declined two years ago because of Covid-19. But it could also serve as an extended dress rehearsal for the World Cup, assuming the Proteas will be there. 

Walter and Conrad are of like mind on most aspects of their job, including the importance of winning in the present and not overfocusing on the future. It is why there was so much speculation that they might offer 38-year-old former captain Faf du Plessis a late flourish to his international career. But that was never likely to happen. Walter was responding to Du Plessis’s assertion some weeks ago that he was far more interested in the wellbeing of the national squad and a return to winning ways than he was in returning to the team. There are many ways to contribute.    

The year 2023 is a distinctly limited-overs year for the Proteas. But before it starts in earnest, the second Test against the West Indies starts at the Wanderers on Wednesday, the last game in the format until the end of December when India arrive.

First impressions last, they say, but final impressions linger longest. Conrad would like his team to play with verve and gusto, but on this occasion it is just as important to take victory into the Test winter’s hibernation.