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It’s said that cricket is evolving to the point where
Shukri Conrad, the Test coach for South Africa and an advocate of the
“proud traditions and heritage” of the long format, said the
following about the current status of the game:
“We are in the entertainment business, and we
have to make sure we make the product enjoyable not only for fans but for
players alike.”
Though they are used in professional sports, terms
like “business” and “product” were not truly taken
seriously when discussing Test cricket until Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes
developed a brand that was meant to make people sit down. It is now up to
others to follow suit after their impressive run of 11 victories in their first
13 Test matches together (they are currently at 13 in 18). Conrad’s remark
suggests that South Africa is thinking about getting on board the aggressive
run-scoring bandwagon. Can they, though, and can they do it now? Is it feasible
for a team with their time and available resources? And do their players want
that? Now let’s look into it.
Due to cost-cutting measures (hosting Test matches is
loss-making unless it is against the Big Three, and South Africa does not play
England or Australia at all), they will only play two Test series between 2023
and 2026. This means that every match counts. South Africa has demonstrated
that they are able to conceive in terms other than style of play: winning, or
at least not losing, needs to be more important.
India is an important cog in a larger wheel, so
there’s more to the urge to deny it than just pride. India appears to be South
Africa’s most formidable opponent in this WTC cycle. Following this series,
South Africa will face a makeshift team against New Zealand, who has never
defeated them in a series at home or away, as their first-choice players are
unavailable due to the SA20. Conrad has already assembled a team, deployed them
in an A series against the West Indies over the past few months, and is certain
they can compete even without the ability to reschedule the games.
The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) 2023
player review, which looked further down the supply chain at domestic cricket,
found that players wanted “more cricket to be played to reduce the gap in
standard between domestic and international cricket.” They requested that
the season begin with four-day games before moving on to T20, and that there be
a minimum of ten games played, an increase of at least three from the current
seven.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that coaches
and former players “unanimously” informed the SACA reviewers that
they thought domestic standards had declined during the previous ten to fifteen
years. Additionally, it implies that the selection criterion may alter such
that the top ODI players, rather than the top-scoring local red-ball players,
will be called up to the Test team.
It’s a shoddy workaround that will only make the local
game less respected, but what else can be done at a time when the SA20 is the
only commercially sustainable format of cricket in this country? If nothing
else, the move is occurring while a person with extensive experience coaching
the Test team is in place.
“We can
bemoan every fact but that is not typically South African,” he said.
“Typically South African is that we have to get up and find a way and make
a plan and that’s what we’ll do.”