Peering over his shoulder from his perch of the Mound Stand, Old Father Time will at last look upon something new. Scythe draped over its back, the weathervane has stood prominent and proud at Lord’s for one year short of a century, a constant amidst the ebbs and flows of a fluctuating game ever more imperilled.
It is several years since the World Test Championship contextualised the uncontextualizable game in an attempt to bat away the creeping threats of a sport evolving away from its anachronistic primary form of combat.
Australia and South Africa arrive carrying rich histories and, one hopes, bright futures for a clash of contrasts between haves and have-nots, helping to keep the deep red flame burning. Perhaps it is a surprise that it has taken three editions of this final to come to the self-proclaimed “Home of Cricket”, the pandemic forcing a relocation to a bubbled bowl on the outskirts of Southampton in 2021 before the ICC iconography bedaubed The Oval two years ago.
If there is a sense that this competition will need severe refinement to achieve its purpose of saving what can be salvaged from a format under siege, weeks like these are reminders of the good of the game, intriguingly matched combatants in a meeting that matters with the Test mace up for grabs.
Not all are content with this competition in its current construct – the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack described it as a “shambles masquerading as a showpiece” – yet it is surely better to have tried and failed than not have tried at all. Clearly, the WTC is a bit of a bodge while games are spread unequally – Australia will play 22 Tests to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh’s 12 in the next cycle – but the different desires of the Test-playing nations will always create tangles that can not easily be unravelled. As detailed previously in these pages, Test cricket is enjoying something of a purple patch, with greater unpredictability than ever before; a South African triumph would feel a somewhat fitting finish to this cycle.
Prominent critics have dismissed their qualification for this final as an aberration or abnormality brought about by an unfair competition format. Yet Temba Bavuma’s side, it can be said, are here as much in spite of the system as because of it. Much has been made of the weak schedule negotiated on their way to the final, but rather less is said of the refusal within that for the big three to schedule series of appropriate length and prestige against the Proteas.
To have made it to this point, having essentially declared on an entire series – a second-string dispatched to New Zealand to take a hiding to nothing – is remarkable indeed. Since that 2-0 defeat in the Tangiwai Shield, South Africa have won seven of eight Tests; West Indies, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are far from fearsome foes but there can be no denying them as an in-form side. At a time when India, Australia and England would perhaps rather build their own marquee, and the vulture capitalists of the franchise circuit pick at the ribs of the emaciated, it is a good thing to see them here.
Because there are plenty of pessimistic noises still sounding. South Africa do not have a home Test scheduled during their upcoming summer – ostensibly to allow upgrades to a number of venues and provide their women’s side a rare place in the spotlight, nonetheless this reflects the malign creep of white-ball cricket in the country with the Test game no longer paying the bills. One only has to see the success of the Springboks in reconnecting with the South African public to see how swiftly things can change; perhaps a World Test Championship win can be a catalyst to re-platform the Proteas more centrally within the landscape.
Underdoggery does not always mesh with the South African sporting identity but fits snugly on the shoulders of Bavuma’s side. They will have a puncher’s chance against the Australian heavyweights given the power possessed by their bowling attack particularly: champion Kagiso Rabada and southpaw Marco Jansen. Both have the capacity to produce match-defining spells.
A somewhat fragile batting order could be lengthened by the presence of all-rounder Wiaan Mulder at No 3 as a sort of pinch-blocking safety valve, enabling those below to occupy positions to which they are more suited. His nibbly seam will be useful, too.
Despite their place as holders and favourites, there were arguably more questions about the composition of the Australian line-up. The return to fitness – and, immediately, form at Gloucestershire – of Cameron Green posed one headache; his current inability to bowl another. His promotion to No 3 sees Marnus Labuschagne, in turn, likely to be moved up to open; with young gun Sam Konstas and the unfortunate Josh Inglis, a Test centurion on debut in Sri Lanka, left out. Labuschagne could therefore do with a score of note to secure his spot. The lead bowling quartet is rather easier to assemble, a combined 1,508 wickets between Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon.
The annals of South African and Australian cricketing rivalry are well worn, from a first Test series in 1902 through the rebel tours of the apartheid era, Herschelle Gibbs dropping the World Cup in 1999 to the 438 game of 2006 that helped herald a new age of white-ball batting and the notorious 2018 series that produced ‘Sandpaper-gate’. The shared similarities perhaps provoke different tensions to certain other conflicts; Saffas and Aussies seeing, perhaps, a bit of themselves in the other as they joust. A clear distinction comes in the trophy cabinet: where Australia possess every prize that the game has to offer, South Africa still seek a first spot of silverware.
And so it will be the mentality monsters, conquerors of all and sundry in recent years, to take on the so-called chokers as yet unaccustomed, excepting a Champions Trophy, with global success. South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad has embraced the term, dragging the current crop over the agonies of the past as they threatened to squander this opportunity in the present.
It worked – just about – as Rabada and Jansen crept, clambered and eventually creamed their way over the line against Pakistan to RSVP to this showpiece occasion. The gathered guests, the ladies and Lord’s, will ensure fitting pomp and ceremony; a first final in white dress could yet see cricket’s great bridesmaids finally be the bride.
