Test cricket’s inevitable shrinking has already begun
In the aftermath of the SCG Test, Pat Cummins and his opposite number Dean Elgar each expressed hope for a wide spread of Test-playing countries well into the 21st century.
As they did so, neither Cummins nor Elgar can have known that cricket’s global chief more or less admitted the impossibility of that scenario a few hours before.
While the complete collapse of South Africa in Australia – after victories on these shores during each of their past three visits – had been cause for alarm in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, the word from across the Tasman in Auckland was still more disquieting.
Dean Elgar and Pat Cummins before the series.Credit:Getty Images
Greg Barclay, the plain-speaking chair of the International Cricket Council, had expressed the view that a reduction in the number of Test playing nations would be an inevitable consequence of the current calendar squeeze.
“It’s an integral part of the game, it’s what makes cricket special, and I think it’s incumbent on all of us to try to make it work,” Barclay had told NewstalkZB Radio. “The fans and the broadcasters are looking at Twenty20 as the area of growth. So trying to balance it out is difficult.
“I think it’s workable, but there will need to be some accommodations within that calendar. And not everybody is going to be able to play Test cricket. That will be the part that we see probably compromised.”
Test and international cricket operates with a scale of dollar disconnects that are done scant justice by employing the term “two-speed economy”. Elgar, as South Africa’s captain, is paid about a 10th of what Cummins rakes in for leading Australia.
And yet, there are concerns among the hierarchy of Australian cricket that not even the richness of a CA central contract will be enough in future to ward off a Twenty20 focus for top cricketers – underlined by how Cummins’ CA income was easily outstripped by the $3 million IPL bounty for Cameron Green.
“We’re really fortunate in Australia that we can invest not only in our players but in a really strong system below us,” Cummins said. “The Sheffield Shield is still 10 games, fantastically well-resourced. As a Test cricket lover I still think it’s the purest form, it’s the most satisfying to play, so I hope there’s a real investment from every country.
“I would say as well, every team and country goes through different phases, so we’ve had a really good run the last 12-18 months, other teams I’m sure will turn a corner and start winning games that maybe we’re having a rebuilding phase. Hopefully, it’s still going really strong and there’s a dozen Test playing nations long after I’m gone.”
For Elgar, the reality is that having watched so many of his countrymen leave international cricket early in pursuit of T20 franchise careers, or the security of Kolpak deals in English county competition, he can now see a fresh generation guided towards the new South African T20 league, bankrolled as it is by Indian corporate cash.
“Our downfall is our currency, and we’re always going to be chasing the dollar unfortunately at whatever it is to our Rand,” Elgar said. “We’re always going to be behind the pack with regards to that, so you can understand why players, they see their careers as a short one and if they feel like they need to maximise it for their period, that’s their decision.
“But I do feel like there is space for compensation around your purest format, which is this one. And if that’s something I can leave with one day when I hang up my boots, it’s something that I really want to motivate Cricket South Africa to still entertain. They still need to entertain their players to play this format.”
In recent years, the successes of the Proteas and also New Zealand were held up as examples of why the international cricket system, while strained, could still reward diligence and talent over financial heft. It wasn’t just the game’s big economies that came out on top.
But as the ICC’s directors prepare, in March, to debate how a US$3 billion India rights deal for World Cups will be distributed among members countries, the imperative for collective solutions to the financial discrepancies is greater than ever.
Otherwise, even Barclay’s words might be left looking like those of an optimist.
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