NEIL MANTHORP: Proteas have work cut out reaching next WTC final

The final of the World Test Championship was a delight to watch, a showcase for all the skills so cherished by the world’s best and most complete players. India are unbeatable at home but Australia are comfortably the best all round team in the world and were good value for their 209-run victory.

India captain, Rohit Sharma, said afterwards that the final should be a three-match series and bemoaned such an important match coming just 10 days after the IPL finished, which sounded like a pastry chef complaining about being fat after eating his own cakes. He offered no suggestion about how, or where to fit another two Tests into the international schedule.

Australian captain, Pat Cummins, likened the showdown to the Olympic Games in which there is only one race for the gold medal after the heats have been completed. He was also perfectly clear what the victory and title as World Test Champions meant to him and his team. “Ask anyone in our changeroom what their favourite format is and they’ll all have the same answer,” said Cummins. 

It’s a bit like having favourite uncles, or even children. You may not be able to disguise your preference, but you daren’t say a word against the others. Especially when the onerous uncle gives you the best birthday presents.

Though the proprietors of the new world order of T20 Leagues around the world would have us believe that they are merely following global trends rather than setting them, the truth is that millions of cricket lovers around the world — inside and outside India — are feeling bewildered and lost by the changes in the game’s structure and apparent values.

It’s time to front-up to those doubts and do something positive amid the confusion because confronting fears is usually a good thing and, also, there isn’t much choice. It is pointless wishing for a return to the way things “were”, because cricket is now on an irreversible trajectory towards a new age.

But second, and this may be harder to digest, many aspects of the old age were antiquated and had been for many decades. Much as I adore first-class cricket and would write and broadcast anything to advocate its preservation and campaign for its continuation, the whisper was never far from my ear. It is a luxury for the players and spectators — in its current format.

Much as players enjoy the highs, lows, competitive thrust and long hours of the four and five-day game, the days of meaningful audiences sharing that joy, in-person, passed somewhere between the 1960s and 1980s depending on where you live and watch the game. SA had the last significant crowds for first-class cricket because of isolation and the fernangled Rebel Tours.

Test cricket cannot survive without a significant and meaningful first-class structure to support it, that’s true, but not enough clinical and dispassionate thought has been dedicated to defining how that cricket should be played and staged. Is it entertainment, or preparation for something higher? Is it in the market for an audience, and if so, what sort?

It’s no wonder that the WTC final was a success. The ICC, once the governing body of the global game, is now a full-time events company, and a very good one. Having identified that the decision-making part of its role had been rendered obsolete by the BCCI, and that its control of the global calendar made similarly redundant by the owners of T20 Leagues, they chose to exist, and compete, on the only level they could. As an events company.

Unless the ICC grabbed a small chunk of each year during which they could hold back the swathe of alternative events, their main role would be handing out the complimentary notepads, pens and mints to the Test nations at AGMs. That’s the reason there is an ICC event every year. By hosting events, really well, the administrators not only offer their employers $600m a year in revenue, they keep themselves relevant.

To get themselves back into the spotlight and keep Test cricket alive and relevant in this country, SA have to reach the next final of the WTC. It is not an exaggeration to say that the following final, in 2027, will be too late. The Proteas have been left the bare scraps of a Test schedule and they need to turn them into a banquet.

Starting at the end of December against India, the Proteas have 12 Tests in two years, six at home and six away. Pakistan and Sri Lanka are the other visitors with short trips to New Zealand, the West Indies and Bangladesh completing the schedule.

An attritional mindset used to be a prerequisite to play Test cricket but that has changed forever. SA Test cricketers of the future will have to bold, fearless and entertaining, risking defeat in pursuit of victory. Only by being so will they give themselves the chance of reaching the next WTC final and keeping the format alive in this country.