Nurture Cricket's Runt

WTC is an Ugly Miracle worth keeping

    Today is the third SA20 Player Auction, and I have been invited. It is being staged at a fancy Waterfront hotel and I’m assuming there will be snacks as the invitation asked about dietary requirements. It could be a long evening. There is plenty of razzmatazz and a famous auctioneer has been hired for the occasion.

    There are only 13 places available across the six teams although they are clearly in great demand as there are over 180 names vying for a place. Shamar Joseph is amongst them, as are Carlos Brathwaite and Martin Guptill who, some would say, might be a little past their best. Maybe not.

    Paarl Royals have the most cash left in the kitty with R11.95 million. Maybe that’s because they don’t have to pay Jos Buttler next year. Mumbai Indians CT are next with R8.275 million which is surprising because they must be paying Ben Stokes a fortune. No, hang on a minute. Stokes was never in the Auction. That was a private deal. The really big stars don’t have to bother with being bid for. Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes.

    But, being as it appears to be Test season and India have just won one of the most extraordinary matches of all time against Bangladesh, I have other things on my mind.

    There is a strong argument to suggest that the World Test Championship is the most structurally flawed competition between nations in any sport, ever. Two of the teams in it will never play against each other and all of the teams only play six of the other eight. Randomly. Sort of.

    Except for the ‘big three’. India, England and Australia will always play against each other, a lot. The rest are drawn out of a hat, but under supervision. The ‘small seven’ nations are free to make requests. So are the big three. England and Australia would prefer not to play Bangladesh at home, thank you. They’ve got tickets to sell. So that doesn’t happen.

    Some of those series consist of five Test matches, some are three but most have only two fixtures. In order to ‘flatten’ this oddity the teams are judged on their winning percentage which counts heavily against the teams which play longer series because it’s much harder to win four out of five than two out of two.

    And yet, and yet… For all its comical imperfections and ludicrous logistics, it is better than nothing. In the case of South Africa and New Zealand, The WTC is almost certainly the only thing that will keep the format alive for another few years. Although the ramifications of CSA sending a ‘C’ team to New Zealand are still being felt, and will be for years to come.

    The fact that it exists at all is a monumental feat of political and sporting compromise. Dozens of formats were proposed over the course of many years, all of them knocked back by objections from various member nations. A second division would make a lot of sense but was vetoed by everyone who thought they might be in it. India vs Pakistan at a neutral venue? Nope.

     The only thing which holds it all together is the prize. Five days at Lord’s in June next year and the prestige of the title are incentive enough, but it is also the commercial benefits of being Test Champions. Prize money for the players is welcome but, more importantly, the likelihood of more fixtures in future Test cycles, both home and away.

    Only England and are not motivated by the WTC – they don’t need to be. The game is still in rude health in the country and the national obsession with the Ashes meant that a new competition would struggle to catch the collective imagination. For everybody else, including Australia and India, the competition and the title are relevant and important.

    In fact, India were so desperate to beat Bangladesh in their second Test in Kanpur that they smashed every batting speed record and won, effectively, inside two days after two full days were lost to rain. Scoring 285-9 in just 34.4 overs was gloriously preposterous.  

    India and Australia currently occupy the top two places on the WTC log and would, ordinarily, be heading for a repeat of the last final which Australia won. But they play each other in five Tests for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy next month and heavy defeat for either nation could well eliminate them from contention for a place in the final. 

    “It is there and we pay attention to it because it’s something that we can realistically still be a big part of. According to my calculations I reckon five out of six wins should get us there, obviously depending on a few other results going our way,” said South Africa’s coach, Shukri Conrad, in announcing his squad to play Bangladesh later this month.

    So, one win in either Dhaka or Chattogram and 2-0 victories against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the South African summer could see the Proteas lining up for the most important Test match in their history in the English summer.

    If they do get there, of course, it would be six months after their last Test match and in the middle of their winter when most of the squad would not have played red ball cricket for many months. Which is just another one of the ugly realities of a competition which would have been stillborn in any other sport. It may be a runt but it’s cricket’s runt and we need to nurture it because it’s all there is.