The Title Won't Last Forever, but the Feeling Will...

Time to make it better, stop whining.

Sporting life moves forward at a relentless pace and there’s rarely sufficient time to appreciate, never mind celebrate many of the great achievements. In the modern context, South Africa’s Test squad enjoying the best part of three days in London after becoming World Test Champions was a luxury, and well earned.

Not that they had time for leisurely pub lunches on the banks of the Thames. It was a relentless schedule of sponsor and promotion commitments, all undertaken with an abundance of smiles and good humour. It helps when you’ve won the biggest match of your lives, but a little grumpiness would be understandable when an artistic director is seeking the ‘perfect shot’ and asking for a third or fourth take. Instead, they just seemed to laugh and take the piss out of each other.

“It does help that we won, obviously, but it was also the event itself which I’ll never forget,” said Shukri Conrad. “The place (Lord’s) is so ‘spot on’ and the atmosphere was something most of us had never experienced before. We want to create a legacy in SA Test cricket, we’re already dreaming of coming back to defend our title, but even if we don’t make it, I’m going to come back and watch!”

This was different, of course. It wasn’t a T20 tournament in which everyone delights and forgets in almost equal haste. And it wasn’t just ‘more’ important to Temba Bavuma and his team mates. It was the ‘most’ important thing they’d done in their professional careers and, to a man, exceeded their hopes if not aspirations. I’m not sure how they were at OR Tambo when they landed but when they left London there was zero sense of anti-climax as is often the case post victory. More a sense that the feeling would last a lifetime.

Who knows what criticism would have been aimed at South Africa if they had lost, but the sad ‘blamers’ taking aim at Australia will give you an idea. The squad arrived in England 10 days before the final and flew straight to Inverness (seriously) for some golf in Scotland. Afterwards, they trained, hard, for five straight days. They did not organise a practise match. Josh Hazlewood chose to stay in India to play the IPL knockout and final for RCB. Reasons for defeat? Stop it. Absurd.

Excuse the repetition but the other red-herring is the WTC final’s status as a ‘one-off’ match. It is not a ‘problem’, it is precisely it’s beauty and attraction. Reaching the ‘Ultimate Test’ requires stamina and longevity and the international schedule makes a series to decide the winner impossible. A one-off Test match for the games grandest title focuses attention (players and viewers) like nothing else in the game. It doesn’t necessarily mean the ‘best’ team wins, but it most definitely means the best team in the game wins. It doesn’t matter how many races you’ve won before the Olympic Games final.

The next assignment for the Test Champions is two matches against Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo at the end of the month. From performing Opera at the Royal Albert Hall to a sing-along around a campfire. Sydney Opera House to Sid’s tea-house. But they all have their place and non should be disrespected. Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Dewald Brevis and Lesego Senokwane will take their first, important steps into the Test top order with Codi Yusuf a possibility for another debut. The sport keeps moving.

More repetition: I love English cricket and many of my best and longest friends come from within it. But I do wish they’d stop whining like sickly infants about the WTC and it’s deformed and compromised format. It is a joke. But it’s a joke that has kept the format alive in seven countries for the last five years and, while England continue failing to reach the final, the whingeing sounds more and more like sour grapes. Either grow up (Australia have enthusiastically embraced the concept) or do a bit more to improve the format.

Finally: A huge, and sincere ‘thank you’ to everyone who bought me a coffee – often more than one – towards my trip to Lord’s. I will never forget it, the thousands of people who attended will never forget it and, hopefully, you may have enjoyed an image or insight here or there which may otherwise have passed you by. Thank you, once again.

I wasn’t at OR Tambo because I’m remaining in England for the England/India Test series as part of the TalkSport radio commentary team. If you’re keen to listen to what (I suspect) will be an absorbing contest, just subscribe to the TalkSport YouTube channel and it’s all yours. Thank you all once again. World Test Champions. Ha.

(And here’s a cool snap taken by Yashasvi Jaiswal of the Indian team travelling from London to Leeds for the first Test at Headingley on Friday…by train!)