South African captain Temba Bavuma celebrates with the ICC World Test Championship mace in London.
| Photo Credit: ICC via Getty Images
In the next 15 months, South Africa, World Test champions, play no series at home. This says something important about their win in the final at Lord’s where they beat Australia convincingly in what their low-key leader, Tenda Bavuma, the first Black man to captain the country called, “a win for the “small” teams. These currently being nine of 12 Test nations outside the so-called Big Three of India, England, Australia who have greater resources, larger talent pools and more victories in ICC tournaments.
In England — where the final was played — fans of English cricket (and some players) thought South Africa didn’t deserve to be in the final; their cricket board focused on two-Test series like someone forced to meet a requirement while the real thing was being played elsewhere. They had sent a ‘B’ team to New Zealand and unsurprisingly lost the series while the main players remained at home to play T20 franchise cricket.
While other cricket boards at least made a show of encouraging Test cricket, South Africa’s gave up all pretense and simply gave in to the current money machine. They played neither Australia nor England in the third cycle of the World Test Championship which now has three different winners, after New Zealand, another small team, won the inaugural final and Australia the next.
Twists and turns
The final was everything Test cricket is about. Unpredictable, for one, with as many twists and turns as a road to a hilltop. Emotionally draining for supporters, with every possibility alive almost till the end. One moment Australia looked like a team that could not lose, next, like one that could not win. After the first day, Mitch Starc the batter turned out to be more effective than Mitch Starc the bowler. Commentators told us the pitch was slow, it was fast, the ball was coming on, it wasn’t coming on, Australia were too far ahead for it to be competitive, perhaps merely giving breath to their biases.
Aidan Markham played the innings of his life; so did Bavuma, who went from being a symbol (he was called a ‘quota captain’ when he took over) to an individual with a big heart and a calculating head. He has won nine of his first ten Tests, leading South Africa to eight wins in a row at the end of it.
Does this mean Test cricket will get a boost in South Africa or that the country’s reputation of being chokers will no longer apply? The former depends on their administrators and the latter on the players.
But what of the WTC itself? Is it time to have at least a three-Test final because a series win is the essence of the format? Importantly, is it time to look at some other changes?
We must begin with an understanding — that we cannot allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Looking for the perfect system is fine, but waiting till we have one before starting the World Test Championship cycles would have worked against it.
That only nine of the 12 countries playing Test cricket are involved in the WTC cycle means that ‘lesser’ teams ( one step below Bavuma’s ‘small’ teams) will continue to struggle. Most experts are against the notion of splitting the teams into two groups, fearing that this will lead to endless matches among India, England, Australia with the others getting further marginalised.
New structure
But if the two groups are divided so that every alternate team is in one group – thus, teams ranked in the odd number, one, three five in one and two, four, six in the other, it would mean all twelve get to be involved. Going by the current rankings, therefore, Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan would be in one group while South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe would be in the other. No promotion or relegation, no greater and lesser group. It will also help with the scheduling too.
The cycle could be of three years rather than the current two. And the points system simplified. England skipper Ben Stokes has called the competition “utterly confusing”. The aim should be to make it less confusing and more inclusive, as any World championship ought to be.
Published – June 18, 2025 12:30 am IST
