Proteas Test Squad Rebuild
Time to look in unexpected places
The first match of an exhausting, eight-game tour by Australia will be under way in a little over two weeks and then everybody will be talking about what an astonishingly good white-ball cricketer Heinrich Klaasen has turned himself into, and whether South Africa can finally win a World Cup.
I look forward to all of that. It’s exciting to have international cricket back after a five-month hiatus, Klaasen is one of the best in the world at the moment and, after eight trial runs, I’ve become adept at talking up South Africa’s chances at World Cups – and developing a thick skin for afterwards. Make that seven. Nobody had any expectations before the 1991 version.
But seeing as there is still a fortnight to go, here’s another take on Test cricket. It’s my passion, so indulge me. (Although my efforts to be similarly passionate about the future are ongoing. Not especially successful as yet.)
South Africa’s fixture clash in February next year still obsesses me. Finding a Test team to do justice to the country, the format and the World Test Championship while 58 of the country’s best cricketers are committed to the SA20, and therefore unavailable, struck me as untenable. A disaster waiting to happen.
Time heals everything. What if there were outstanding cricketers, earning a good salary, desperate to play Test cricket as their first priority, who weren’t compromised by commitments to T20 Franchises? So, I thought of David Bedingham. When he left Western Province to sign a full-time contract with Durham three years ago, his WP coach, Ashwell Prince, was distraught to the point of anger: “He is exactly the sort of player we should be looking to play for South Africa, now he’s gone,” Prince said.
Maybe not.
“I’d be very happy to travel to New Zealand and, hopefully, get a shot at playing some Test cricket. It’s always been my dream to play at the highest level so, if they came calling, I would definitely not turn it down,” Bedingham said when I interviewed him for TalkSport two days ago.
Last year Bedingham, who has a first-class average of 50.11, said he would be trying to qualify to play for England. But that changed.
“I could get a passport to play for England in the next three years but, when I looked at it, while I’m playing my best cricket between the ages of 28 and 31, I want to be able to play Test cricket now. So, trying to do my (resident) days in England was quite frustrating. Even if I scored 10,000 runs between now and 2025 I can only play county cricket. I thought, ‘let’s just try and stay focussed on South Africa,’ Bedingham said.
Turns out, I suspect, that I wasn’t the first person to talk to Bedingham about his keenness to play Test cricket. In case you’re wondering, he has scored 17 centuries amidst 5500+ runs at an average of 50.11, at the time of writing.
“I’ve looked at the South African Test schedule and, if I did get picked, I think I would only miss August for Durham, which is basically just the One-Day Cup now, so it wouldn’t be a massive train smash. I like playing one-day cricket and T20 cricket, and I love playing first-class cricket for Durham, but if I had to give one of them up it would probably be the one-day game.
“I still want to play as much first-class cricket as possible for Durham but South Africa’s (Test) schedule now, with the SA20, is a lot less, something like six Tests a year. I think it should be a lot more but that’s just how it is so, hopefully, it wouldn’t interrupt Durham as much as it could have,” Bedingham told me.
So yes, he has been ‘sounded-out’ already. Current Proteas Test coach and fellow Capetonian, Shukri Conrad, has known him a long time, and knows how good he is. They might have had conversations. Who knows, apart from them?
But, with most of the game’s money now in T20, why wouldn’t Bedingham (who scored a century from 52 balls less than a week ago in 50-over cricket) focus on his shortest-format skills?
“Playing T20 leagues is pretty cool, you get to rub shoulders with five or six massive international names, but I still think the best thing to play is Test cricket, it tests you more than anything else. Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to do that,” Bedingham said.
Test cricket is being marginalised, more so in South Africa than anywhere else. Even more so than in the Caribbean. But there is still a desire to keep it alive. And to do so, Conrad and other selectors need to look in the deepest, darkest corners of the cricket world. Players who, reluctantly, gave up potential Test careers, despite their desires. Dane Paterson would be a worthwhile call.
Yearning for Kagiso Rabada to play Test cricket is understandable. He is, and will always be, one of the greats. But expecting, or even asking him to decline a $1million contract to play Test cricket for a tenth of that amount is preposterous.
It is time to move on. Such is the depth of South African cricket talent, wherever it may lie, a winning Test team can be built. But only out of players who ‘want’ to play the best format.
Right, onto the Aussies and the World Cup, here we go…