Test Action Galore

Time to Feast

    Overlapping Test Series have been a part of my life and career for as long as I can remember, over 30 years but rarely, if ever, can I recall the levels of anticipation being quite so topped up as they are now with a week or so to go before six of the Test-playing nations lock horns.

    And it’s all because of the most shambolic tournament in the history of professional sport. The World Test Championship. Regular readers may have been reminded of its many and prolific imperfections about a month ago. And yet…

    India’s 3-0 loss to New Zealand was the greatest shock in the history of Test cricket. I dare you to name a contender. Now India need to win four out of five in the Border/Gavaskar Trophy to qualify for the final, and the Black Caps need to beat England 3-0 to keep their chances alive.

    South Africa must beat Sri Lanka starting on Wednesday (!?) in Durban next week and Gqeberha the following week. If Sri Lanka can replicate their famous 2-0 win against the Proteas in 2019 (a contender for greatest upset but not close to NZ’s win in India) then they may just need one victory from their two Tests at home against Australia in the new year.

    It’s a great thrill. The World Test Championship is blind, stupidly illogical and should never have worked. But it is. For now.

    I would happily have worked on any of the three series but the bag is packed for Christchurch and the first Test between New Zealand and England. Commentating for TalkSport has been an enduring joy for many years and, when I accepted their invitation six months ago, there was no prospect of South African cricket on the SABC, my freelance hub for over three decades. Like Neil McKenzie in my previous column, quality work must be taken when offered. I suspect Bazball may be about to face its greatest challenge yet. I can’t wait – even 27 hours in the air with Singapore Airlines won’t temper my excitement.    

    *Incidentally, the South African government is far from alone in grouping sports with the Arts at departmental level. There are many of Ministers Sport, Art and Culture around the world and, counter intuitive as it may seem to many people on many levels, there are obviously enough similarities to administer them with the same department.

    The Arts are subsidised in every country on earth which is able to feed itself. The Arts are deemed important enough to most country’s heritage to be encouraged. Galleries, museums and music festivals don’t all make money – the majority wouldn’t even come close to breaking even without private sponsors and national subsidies.

    They are also not charities. Corporates and governments don’t give money to the Arts simply because they need it to survive. They do so because there are spin-offs in the national interest. Tourism is the obvious, most quantifiable one but there are economists with complicated algorithms who claim to measure the positives of a population feeling proud of their nation’s success on an international stage.

    Pride and competitive success leeds to more happy, healthy people, apparently, and they cost less to look after. It is why countries like New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands and Ireland invest so heavily in the Olympic sports and over-achieve as a result with chest thumping medals-to-population ratios.

    So, for the sake of conformity, let’s assume that cricket is art – and that it needs all forms of it to produce the highest selling, most populist versions. Cartoonists are often classically trained artists and almost all of the world’s highest selling pop and rock stars learned piano or violin as children. But, as far as I’m aware, there are no serious advocates of Peanuts and Taylor Swift being the sole or even dominant art and music on the education curriculum.

    Test cricket is the game’s fine art and classical music, and there are three fabulous series about to start in the next week or so, two of which involve the ‘big three’ nations. The first of five Tests in the Australia vs India  Border/Gavaskar Trophy begins in Perth on Friday while England’s three-Test tour of New Zealand gets under way in Christchurch six days after that.

    A word, Minister…