Maduro, Putin and William Wakefield...

And Bavuma hears the Sound of Silence...

Nothing should ever be assumed or taken for granted with Pakistan cricket, but it is now official that, should they lose of their Test matches in Centurion on Boxing Day and Newlands in the New Year, then their hosts will be confirmed participants in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s on June 11 next year.

Despite sending a ‘C’ team to New Zealand last year and winning just one of their first five Tests, the Proteas have now won five in a row to go top of the WTC table. It is quite an achievement and their captain, Temba Bavuma, was at the forefront of the recent 2-0 victory against Sri Lanka with a century and three 50’s in his four innings.

Accustomed to criticism, much of it unfair and unjustified, the 35-year-old has noticed the ‘silence’ on social media. Some people are never satisfied unless they have something to complain about.

“It only takes one or two games for things to change,” said a rueful Bavuma after the 109-run win at St.George’s Park. “The longer you play, the more you accept that as much as you do well, there will be people who are not happy that you're doing well. They're waiting for the opportunity to say what they want to say. Us as sportsmen, through our performances, want to make sure that we don't give them that opportunity.”

“I guess the silence being there is a good thing. Maybe it's not so much of a good thing for the people who want something to write about, but we'll continue to focus on ourselves, the team, and what it is that we would like to achieve,” Bavuma said without a trace of animosity. He really is a very special character, and leader. And cricketer.

Meanwhile, in Wellington…One day I may write about William Wakefield for whom the eight-pillared Memorial was commissioned and built. For a long time it was kept in storage before finally being erected outside the Basin Reserve where it fell into serious disrepair and was used as a casual, late-night urinal. Finally, it was renovated and moved to the top of the grass bank.

To say he is a controversial figure is to say that Harry Brook is quite good at batting. (Joe Root said yesterday he was ‘the best batter in the world at the moment’.) Wakefield arrived amongst the first colonisers and was responsible for purchasing large tracts of land from the Maori people. “A couple of muskets and some blankets for a valley or two,” explained a local, amateur historian. “He drove quite the bargain…”

Meanwhile, in Guyana… the recently concluded, inaugural Global Super League is one of the more extraordinary stories for decades involving four randomly invited teams (and the Guyana Amazon Warriors), a massive oil reserve, Russia, India and an army bristling for a fight.

About a decade ago the oil was discovered off the Guyanese coast. It has transformed the economy and the lives of its previously impoverished citizens with a vast rebuilding of the nation’s infrastructure including schools and hospitals. But, neighbours Venezuela have had their eyes on the province of Essequibo ever since a French imposed border ‘treaty’ awarded it to Guyana in 1899. Now they really want it back, and its oil. Their army is massed on the border threatening an invasion.

Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela doesn’t have the financial or military clout for the operation, but Russia’s Vladimir Putin does, and they are staunch allies. So, Guyana, with half its population of Indian descent, needs a super-power of their own. Last month, Narendra Modi visited the country and unveiled the Global Super League trophy. India’s rapidly expanding economy and population could also benefit from a steady supply of oil from a friendly ally. And they like cricket, too.

What could be better than a ‘high-profile’ cricket tournament to shine a light and focus attention on a looming national incursion, and line up two of the most rumbunctious and ambitious global leaders in opposite corners, albeit behind the largely inconsequential leaders of two South American nations.

It is anyone’s guess if, or what the players from Hampshire, Lahore Qalanders, Victoria and the Rangpur Riders gave to the reasons they were playing in a bizarrely abstract tournament which didn’t exist a couple of months ago and may not again. Or whether the only thing which mattered to them was a prize-money pot of a million dollars.

It may, just, be possible to measure how small $1million is compared the trillions at stake in the long run, but it is emphatically impossible to quantify the degree to which a sport is being shamelessly used, with amusing ease, to further geopolitical agendas. The cricketers most certainly aren’t to blame. Most of us would wear an orange wig and play the clown if the money is good enough.