WTC rages on despite scheduling gripes about South Africa’s qualification path to reach the showpiece event.
WTC rages on as it still manages to stoke five-day fires.
The essence of the pessimism around the World Test Championship is that it’s not the most encouraging message to convey to the next generation. The ICC’s clinging-plaster approach to the sport’s oldest and most endangered format has been as problematic as climate change or the plight of rhinos.
The shortcomings are obvious, and the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack recently criticised the final this week as a “shambles masquerading as a showpiece” from its pulpit.
A comparably strong team’s valuable points-per-test ratio is less likely to be diluted the fewer games they play. Therefore, a team that started this cycle by sending a C-Team to New Zealand, where they were soundly defeated in two Test matches while the nation’s top players stayed home to compete in the SA20, has now advanced all the way to the final after winning seven straight games.
However, the proof of concept that this competition sorely needs is hidden within that very complaint.
The two-Test series might be the scourge of the international schedule because it is too big to fit neatly into any available slot and too little to give the fighters or their supporters any genuine sense of fulfilment. However, their subsequent home series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan took on a life of their own as it became evident in November of last year—thanks to India’s shocking 3-0 home loss to New Zealand—that a road was opening up for South Africa to storm into the reckoning.
Now that the game has converged at Lord’s, where the third staging of the World Test Championship final will take place on Wednesday, the magnificent old ground has the sense of a worldwide event according to the ICC’s blanket branding requirements. It is uncommon for a major tournament to not have some resentful teams contemplating their early elimination and wondering what may have been. A final that doesn’t produce a deserving winner, however, is as uncommon.
“I’m tired of speaking about it, to be honest,” Conrad said, ahead of South Africa’s training session on Monday. “We’re here and that’s all that matters. We get a chance to walk away as the World Test champions, playing Australia. It doesn’t get any bigger than that. So, yeah, what’s gone before counts for absolutely nothing at the minute.”