Graeme, Misbah & the WTC that wasn't...

And Brunch at the Oval?

Just as the FA Cup final doesn’t decide the best team in the English Premiership, the final of the World Test Championship isn’t really there to decide which is the best Test match team. It is, after all, a one-off contest after two years playing three series away from home and three on home soil for the nine contestants.

But it is fair to say, given the constraints and massive imperfections of the league stage, that the two best teams reached the final. How many won seven Test matches in a row? The final is both a tie-breaker and a celebration of the format and the teams journey. The winners get to call themselves ‘World Test Champions’ but there are also the world rankings…

It’s hard to say how most of us would react to a regulation day’s work – or a week in our regular jobs – with the prospect of an entire year’s salary at stake if we should happen to perform well. In the case of some members of the Proteas 15-man squad victory could be the equivalent of two or even three year’s salary. Would plumbers fix broken pipes differently if they were being paid $50,000 rather than $500? Would I write differently? (Not sure, but I’d enjoy the chance to find out.)

Even the most frugal and financially aware cricketers I’ve known over 30 years admit that win bonuses never cross their minds in the heat of battle. They may haggle over $70 daily allowances and other terms and conditions before a tour – and afterwards - but they are the furthest thing from their mind when they’re batting and bowling and the result is at stake.

In the days leading up to Boxing Day Test match at the MCG in 2008, it dawned on me that it was not just the most excited I’d ever been before a Test – but that it might well be the most excited I would ever be before a Test match. My sense of foreboding was created by the history of the decade beforehand and, after two days, like almost everyone else, I was convinced Australia would win and claim the series in Sydney. As always.

Yet here we are, 17 years later (and older) and a similarly giddy excitement runs through me. For most of my cricket-writing and broadcasting career I have advocated and campaigned for a competitive structure for Test cricket. In 2013, through circumstance rather than personality, I MC’d the launch of the inaugural WTC in Abu Dhabi on behalf of the ICC. (It was a couple of days before an SA vs Pakistan Test match – I was there anyway, and I was cheap.)

Graeme Smith and Misbah-ul-Haq endorsed the concept whole hearte dly but it was scuppered by the administrative wranglings of various national boards before it could take its first breath. It would be another eight years before its resurrection. I’m wary of tempting fate, but I suspect it is now here to stay. Not, hopefully, in its current state of massive imperfection, but there is a will to create something more equitable and understandable.

*The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation has asked me, to ask those of you, who may be at the WTC final whether you might be interested in attending a brunch at the Oval two days before the Lord’s Test. Details below: £1500 for a table of 10 may be a stretch for most of you but, given how many subscribers to M-o-C are going to be there, you may be interested in gathering a group together at £150 per head! I’ll help co-ordinate, if I can…

*A short time ago I was phoned by a former employee of Cricket South Africa who was concerned about the composition of the SA Emerging squad which was about to tour Bangladesh. “What does ‘Emerging’ mean”, they asked. It was suggested that I ‘look into’ the inclusion of 29-year-old Northern Cape off-spinner, Tshepo Ntuli. The inference was clear.

But…senior players have been handed ‘thank you paydays’ in every country in the world for years. Ntuli has played 74 first-class games and taken 189 wickets at an average of 32.6. He’s also claimed 53 wickets in 55 List ‘A’ games. He can obviously play. Emerging squads in other countries usually include teenagers and 20-year-olds, one step below ‘A’ teams.

Whether he found his way into the squad by fair means or not, it did not warrant scrutiny. Good for him. Players in such situations, however, are required to keep their side of the bargain. Good role model for the youngsters, don’t attract attention and get on with the job. Definitely not behaving like this

*Please don’t forget - even just one coffee towards my WTC journey would be appreciated. A few will go a long way. (Even in London.) And a ‘paid subscription’ is literally just the cost of one coffee per month…