Test Diagnosis Complete

Prognosis Bleak

    Denial has been easy for the last couple of years because there was no choice. When clinging to hope, however faint, is your only choice, then that’s what you do. It’s why people with terminal diagnoses visit alternative healers at the other end of the world, just in case. Because you never know…until you know. Now we know.

    In some ways it is a relief. Looking back, it was slightly comical that I suggested South Africa could still make their Future Tours Programme Test schedule, pared down to the skeletal minimum, work for them. Playing just six two-Test series in the next two years makes it easier to win maximum points than, say, playing three or four Tests.

    By throwing all their energy and commitment into winning enough points to reach the next final of the World Test Championship, and perhaps even winning it, the Proteas could once again show the world that they are not a spent force, that Test cricket is alive and well. That they could climb back to where they were just a decade ago, the best team in the world.

    But this weekend has confirmed that Cricket South Africa has little interest in achieving that. So poorly was the game administered, for so long, that financial survival is the only realistic goal. And the model for that does not include devoting any meaningful resources, of any sort, to Test cricket.

    The axis upon which everything in the professional game now revolves is one month per year of T20 cricket. There are no equals or parallels. The SA20 is the priority above everything else. World Cups are second and then, who knows? Domestic cricket?

    For those of you just emerging from three months on a nuclear submarine who may have missed the news, South Africa’s two Test matches against New Zealand in February in Mount Maunganui and Hamilton next year clashes with the second edition of the SA20. CSA has been emphatic that the country’s best players will not be released for the Tests.

    “Obviously SA20 is our baby and I, and CSA, have bet our future on it so I'm not suddenly going to allow it to crumble,” said CSA Chief Executive, Pholetsi Moseki, who is the recipient rather than the architect of this mess. “We drew a line in the sand on the importance of the SA20. But on the other side, we also have some commitments to the FTP,” he said.

    ‘Some’ commitment is exactly what it sounds like. South Africa will play the Test matches but without as many as 20 players who might have been in contention in either a first-choice squad or even an ‘A’ team. Former Test captain, Dean Elgar, is one of only three cricketers to have played Test cricket recently who does not have an SA20 contract. Batters Keegan Peterson and Tony de Zorzi are the others. Every bowler within sniffing distance of international cricket will be unavailable for Test selection.

    Could New Zealand Cricket be persuaded to postpone the dates? No. “We've collaborated and agreed dates with CSA, who have confirmed the tour, acknowledged the arrangements and have been in receipt of the schedule for several weeks,” said NZC spokesman, Richard Booke. “Flights have been confirmed, dates for the practice game have been agreed, and we're looking forward to the squad's arrival. The Proteas are a popular and formidable Test team and we view them as an important part of our home summer schedule.”

    They may be popular but ‘formidable’ is optimistic in the circumstances. Even a full-strength England team could only share their series in NZ earlier this year.

    How about just sending NZC a doctor’s note with an apology letter, as they did with Cricket Australia when forfeiting a World Cup Super League ODI series in January in order to launch the inaugural edition of the SA20? “That's not something that we're actually even considering currently,” Moseki said. “Under no circumstances are we considering that.”

    Moseki expressed the hope that this clash of fixtures would not repeat itself in future – but Pakistan are scheduled to tour South Africa for a multi-format tour in December and January next year and the West Indies the year after that.

    “It’s tough to take. It shows what the narrative is when it comes to Test cricket and again it’s the players who suffer,” Elgar commented. “A high percentage of the players still really want to play Test cricket and it’s just extremely sad and clarifies a lot of things when it comes to how Test cricket is viewed by the authorities.

    “We can’t butter our bread on both sides here. It’s lekker to have the franchise T20 competition, but what’s the bigger picture?” Bleak, is the answer, unless you’re a massive fan of watching T20 cricket for 30 days a year. Or believe that Test cricket can provide a handy substitute for ‘A’ tours during the peak of the home summer. Or even ‘development’ tours.  

    There are any number of ironies that come with the situation but two stand out: the first is, or was, the hope that the SA20 would work for the greater good of the South African game. The second is that the most successful Test captain in the 145-year history of the game is the man in charge of the tournament which currently threatens its future existence in his own country.

    Graeme Smith is the most powerful and influential person in South African cricket. Not only is he the first man in a decade to command global, administrative respect, he enjoys a great deal of it. But his commitment now, as Commissioner of the SA20, is to the league. He has done extraordinary work to make it such an immediate success.

    Why would he jeopardise that by chatting to the six IPL-owned Franchises, withwhom he has worked so closely, to see whether they were amenable to playing the last 7-10 days of this year’s SA20 without one, maybe even two of their Proteas players? It’s preposterous. The availability of all national players is guaranteed. It’s in the contract.