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WTC champs the Proteas will once again play far fewer Tests over the coming cycle, than the big three of India, Australia and England.
Proteas all-rounder Aiden Markram lifts the Test mace after they triumphed over Australia in the WTC final at Lord’s in London last week. Picture: Paul Harding/Gallo Images
Newly crowned World Test Championship (WTC) champions, the Proteas, head into the next two-year cycle with a slight bump in fixtures, but still well short of cricket’s big three.
During the previous WTC cycle the Proteas played exclusively in two game series’, which saw them play six teams in 12 Tests over the two-year period, winning eight Tests, drawing one and losing three.
This saw them finish at the top of the WTC standings, based on a percentage system, as they didn’t play nearly as many matches as the big three, including fellow finalists Australia, who played 19 Tests during the cycle.
Due to this system, and the opposition that the Proteas faced, neither which was their fault, led to many foreign fans and pundits questioning whether they deserved to be in the final, and most wrote off their chances of lifting the Test mace.
However, the Proteas proved that it was no fluke, and backed up their seven game winning run going into the finale at Lord’s by handing the Aussies a five wicket defeat.
Now a new Test cycle is set to get under way, but the same problems remain unaddressed, as the big three of India, England and Australia continue to dominate Test cricket.
New Test cycle
The Proteas will play six teams in 14 Tests this time round, up two from the previous cycle, with them playing three Test series’ against England and Australia, and two Test series’ against India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Of the other non big three teams, New Zealand play the most with 16 Tests, West Indies play 14, Pakistan 13, and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh both play 12.
Of the big three, Australia have the lion’s share of games with 22, followed by England with 21 and India with 18, and once again these three will be the only teams to play in five Test series’.
‘Spread the game’
Former Proteas player and administrator Dr Ali Bacher lamented the number of fixtures the Proteas will have in the cycle during an interview with SportsBoom, and urged the ICC to ensure a fairer WTC format going forward.
“If you look at the international cricket calendar out now, it is dominated by England, Australia, and India playing each other for a five-Test series, and South Africa is in the second league. We don’t have any international Tests this summer at home,” said Bacher.
“You have to spread the game and not confine it to two or three big countries. In those years, when I was the chairman of the ICC development program, our objective was to spread the game.
“What South Africa has shown now, with the WTC triumph, the authorities need to rethink and start spreading the game, and not confine it to three countries, which was never the objective of the ICC.”
The Proteas do have an additional two-match Test series outside of the WTC, against Zimbabwe, next month, where they will at least be able to blood some new talent as some senior players are rested.
