The World Test Championship Is Flawed But South Africa Deserve Cricket Success

Dredging up horrors of the past for this infamously tragic cricket nation, South Africa appeared to be again slipping on a banana peel at the most inopportune moment in the first Test against Pakistan.

Chasing just 148 for victory Centurion, with a place in the World Test Championship final in their sights, South Africa looked set to fall agonizingly short at 99 for 8. For a country that has suffered many of cricket’s most heart-breaking losses, including just six months ago in the T20 World Cup final, this would have been a particularly bitter pill to swallow.

To be fair, it was tough batting conditions and Pakistan – cricket’s most mercurial team – were having one of those periods when they’re on such a roll that it can leave you breathless by their brilliance. It was the good Pakistan on show and amazingly there were headed for a first Test win in South Africa since 2007 after seven straight defeats.

All those nasty labels that have haunted South African cricket for decades, the c-word has probably banned there since roughly 1999, appeared to be resurfacing until lower-order batters Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen improbably scored the 51 runs needed to get them over the line and into June’s WTC.

The celebrations were mighty – although the number of empty seats in the terraces was an eyesore amid such stirring scenes – but most of all there was relief for a country that is on the brink of finally winning a major cricket title.

South Africa deserve a cricket championship. It’s true that the nine-team WTC is entirely flawed and has practical and logistical challenges that just can’t be compared to other sports.

There isn’t enough time to play a home and away format meaning the integrity of the tournament is already dubious to begin with. Bitter foes India and Pakistan don’t even play each other due to political differences exacerbating the problems.

Test cricket for many countries isn’t financially viable and dwindling in popularity, as can be gleaned by the a slim crowd of 3600 at Centurion, which means series are played over a tight timeframe of two matches. In and out, essentially, wrap the series up in a couple of weeks before the expenses start racking up.

Long series, like the current five-match blockbuster between Australia and India, can only be financially viable if they consist of powerhouses Australia, England and India.

Given the commercial realities, South Africa played a bunch of two-Test series against smaller nations in a modest schedule that helped them become the first team to qualify for the WTC final to be played at Lord’s in London.

Some have cried foul that South Africa didn’t deserve it given their administrators evidently disrespected Test cricket after sending a weakened squad to New Zealand earlier this year. That was due to their top players being required for their fledgling T20 domestic franchise league, which has become the country’s money-spinner.

A shorthanded South Africa were expectedly thrashed, but evidently karma doesn’t exist as they still qualified. While it might be hard for those from the power countries to get their head around, nations like South Africa need a revenue generator and, in a sign of the times, the T20 league fits the bill.

Given that the powerful trio of nations have been reticent to regularly play the rest, and with the sport’s revenues skewed in their favor, then it gives little option but for the likes of South Africa to find revenue streams.

It’s also a reward for South Africa’s long-time toil in Test cricket. Since readmission in 1992, they’ve been the most consistent team in the red-ball format marked by a sustained run of success by Graeme Smith’s team in the late 2000s-early 2010s – the most underrated cricket team in recent times.

It’s also a tonic for Test cricket that a non power cricket has made the final after India and Australia contested last year’s decider. South Africa’s opponent is still to be determined adding another layer of intrigue to the current nerve-jangling India-Australia series and also Australia’s subsequent tour of Sri Lanka, who also remain in the hunt.

A final between South Africa and Sri Lanka? Imagine that. Though broadcasters and administrators might not feel so warm and fuzzy over that prospect.

For all its faults, the WTC has been a great initiative by cricket’s decision makers who are far too often lethargic overtrying to revitalize the sport but on this occasion deserve plaudits.

And it all means that in June, on cricket’s most traditional ground in the sport’s old heartland, South Africa can finally banish the ghosts that have haunted them for three decades.