LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 08: (EDITORS NOTE: This image has been retouched) Temba Bevuma of South … More
On Wednesday, the third edition of the ICC’s World Test Championship final begins at Lord’s between current holders Australia and South Africa. The iconic venue, known as the home of cricket, takes over duties after the Rose Bowl in Southampton and the Oval in South London were used for the previous two finals in 2021 and 2023. The English are neutral hosts for the third time.
The weather for the match between Pat Cummins and Temba Bavuma’s sides is set fair with no interruptions predicted for any of the five days. In 2021, COVID-19 restrictions affected the contest between India and New Zealand, and the game was a damp squib due to the weather as the Kiwis won on a reserve day. Two years later, the Australians powered past Rohit Sharma’s team with Travis Head and Steve Smith’s centuries setting up a big win on the first day.
The two best teams in the cycle are meeting for the biggest prize on the Test match table just days after Virat Kohli told aspiring cricketers that the red-ball game is many levels above T20. “If you want to earn respect in world cricket all over, take up Test cricket, give your heart and soul to it and earn the respect from legends,” said the superstar after winning the IPL with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The 36-year-old has just retired from the game he rates.
What’s not to like? There’s plenty of negativity around the process and quite possibly a huge disappointment that the masters of the universe in Test cricket revenue and eyeballs, India, are not involved. The naysayers have come from respectable places not dark corners. Cricket’s ‘bible’, Wisden Almanack has been scathing about the World Test Championship final, calling it a “shambles masquerading as a showpiece.”
One of the issues for the WTC has been the qualification steps which are as uneven as the 1998 Sabina Park pitch when the England team physio ran out multiple times to treat the injured. Skipper Nasser Hussain claimed that groundstaff were trying to fill in the holes with “Polyfilla”. The World Test Championship cycle has done its best to cement the two-year cycle into some kind of structure. It’s an imperfect circle.
South Africa has only played the Indians out of the Big Three (the others being Australia and England) but have booked their place at the top of the table with wins over the teams that take the last four places at the bottom of the nine-team table- Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Pakistan.
Opponents Australia has played 19 Tests in the qualification period with ten of those coming against India and England. The disrespect aimed at the Proteas’ achievement has come from some surprising quarters with former England captain Michael Vaughan suggesting they had made it on “the back of beating pretty much nobody.”
A flawed format is hardly something that the South Africans should apologize for. Their Test match health has been reliant on two-match series against the smaller nations as India, Australia and England play the money-spinning series on their own playgrounds. It’s okay for some and okay for the sums of the BCCI, ECB and Cricket Australia. South Africa is not at the same starting gate and they sent a weakened squad to New Zealand at the start of 2024 as their fledgling domestic T20 captured the majority of stars and big money for the country’s game.
In 2023, Cricket South Africa chief executive Pholetsi Moseki explained the financial issues. “We just hosted the West Indies for Tests; you saw for yourself on TV, the grounds were totally empty, we were not even 10 or 20% full. If you go to England or Australia, Test cricket is still supported, the stadiums are still full.”
The complexities of a fair and reasonable world league table is further hampered by India and Pakistan not playing each other because of political tensions since 2007.
When former Australian keeper-batter Adam Gilchrist delivered the annual Spirit of Cricket lecture at Lord’s in 2009, he was upfront about the state of the long format. “Even its most ardent admirers would have to acknowledge that Test cricket is now redundant as the financial driver of the game.” The Indian Premier League showed players the money and they came out in force.
The ICC has established a world title that is behind the eight-ball in modern times. Bottom hardly ever plays top and its two biggest rivals, who sell out a 90,000 crowd at the MCG for a T20 World Cup match, never play each other at all.
Yet, there’s still something, a zeitgeist that Test match cricket brings. Nothing was meant to come easy in sport and five days of battles won and lost is a mini-series that carries more depth than a short-term burst of colorful hitting. Witness West Indies winning in Australia for the first time in 27 years. That’s when Test cricket makes perfect sense.
The public can dig a five star five-hour tennis final. Five days of a world cricket final feels like a harder sell. If Australia and South Africa put on a good show then it will still feel like a pilot. India is coming to England for a five-Test series just days after. Even without the Bollywood Kohli, it’s a bigger carnival. The power of the mini-series between the Dallas and the Dynasty Test teams holds court over a one-off decider that has indecisive reach.
