The Wait is as Good as the Game

WTC Final is a proper David vs Goliath

A friend at the Marylebone Cricket Club told me late last year that “concern was very real indeed” at the MCC when it seemed increasingly likely that South Africa would join Australia in the final of the World Test Championship.

“I know there a lot of South Africans and Aussies in London but how many of them are interested in cricket, and how many can afford over £100 to come to Lord’s?” he asked. “If the ground is half-empty it’s going to be a terrible look for Test cricket and not something we’re used to for an international at HQ.”

He needn’t have worried about the Saffas already in London. There are quite literally thousands resident in South Africa with the means and desire to be there, and who will be there – and thousands more still looking for tickets. If I accept the invitation for a coffee or beer from half who have extended such a kindness I will be incapable of writing a word, which would be simultaneously fun and self-defeating. I’ll be there to share the experience with those of you who can’t be there!

Temba Bavuma and his team have said an appropriate number of the right things about wanting to win the Test match and not being satisfied with simply reaching it, but they haven’t overdone it. Quite rightly, they have also acknowledged the quality of the cricket they have played to get to Lord’s and are appropriately pleased with their achievement.

But that doesn’t mean the rest of us shouldn’t really enjoy the time before the final begins. Sports lovers tend to forget that the quality of the anticipation is as important as the performance. We remember the joy or disappointment of the result and forget the fun of the build-up. Six months is an awfully long time to wait between their last Test match and the final but, in its current format, that will always be the case with the WTC.

Australia’s last Test was in Sri Lanka in February before the IPL’s ever-expanding window opened (or closed?) after the WTC league stage was completed. There is a strong case to be made for the team topping the log hosting the final although the BCCI has already indicated that they will be pitching for the 2027 final at the extremely large but equally soulless Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

The main reason it has been scheduled in England so far is for the diversity of its cricket following population and the likelihood that the chosen venue would be full no matter who qualified. But with a minimum of four or five months between the last Test played and the final, logistics are largely irrelevant, and the hosts should have plenty of time for marketing.

But back to Test cricket in South Africa. The game is administered by an organisation which has been collectively happy to see the format reduced to its bare, survival ration minimum without a single Test match scheduled in the country for 18 months. They say their decisions are based on financial pragmatism yet Zimbabwe, who are not even in the WTC, have scheduled eight Tests on home soil this year at a cost to themselves of approximately $4 million. It is a remarkable recognition of what is important and, also, that true cricket value cannot be measured solely in dollars and cents.

Talking of which…the winners of the WTC will receive $3.6 million while the runners-up will collect $2.1 million. (South Africans instinctively reach for calculator.) Approximately R64 million or R37 million. Of course you’re interested in how this is divided up, don’t deny it. Well, the first 20% goes to Cricket South Africa, employers’ prerogative. The next 10% goes to the Proteas team management which usually numbers 11 - head coach, assistant coaches, manager, S&C, physio, doctor, security and media manager.

The remaining 70% is divided amongst the 15-man squad and those who played in earlier series on the way to the final but missed the final cut using a pro-rata system calculated by the SA Cricketers Association and trusted implicitly by the players. But the chosen 15 for the final itself will receive an additional R2 million in image rights payments, as they do before all ICC events. So, it’s very good cash. But they won’t be thinking about that when they’re facing Mitchell Starc or bowling to Steve Smith.

It is eye-rubbing to think that Smith has scored more Test runs than the entire South African squad. Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharav have just over 500 wickets between them while Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon have over 1400. It is David against Goliath, which is exactly why we love it.

So, to Riaan, Tony, Andrew and Sisa – and John Matham and Mike Wills from CapeTalk (who’s going to present the afternoon Drive Show?) – and to Sean Prior who is travelling from Singapore for the occasion and has booked lunch at ‘Diogenes the Dog’ two days before the match starts – enjoy and celebrate the tension and apprehension. It is an intrinsic part of why love sport.