Leading Edge: Yes, we have no test cricket

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

IN the 195 days between January 7 and July 21, you could walk from Johannesburg to Cape Town more than eight times, climb Mount Everest three-and-a-quarter times and fly around the world almost 300 times.

But you could not watch SA play test cricket. Not a single ball of the stuff, much less an over, or an innings or a match or the gods forbid an entire series. Yes, we have no test cricket.

Ah, it’s the World Cup, you say. That must be it - everybody is busy with the World Cup so there is no time to bother with test cricket. Yes. And no.

The World Cup will indeed keep cricket’s finest players in their pyjamas for a long time. But not for 195 days.

On March 29, the World Cup final will be played in Melbourne. Another 113 days will pass before SA take to the field in whites.

Perhaps other test teams are also taking things a little easy before and after the World Cup. Umm, no.

England are off to the Caribbean for three tests against West Indies. Then they go home to host New Zealand in two more. After that, West Indies welcome Australia for two tests. And then England and Australia clash.

In fact, two matches of the Ashes series will have been played by the time SA get back on the park. They will do so in Chittagong. That’s right, against Bangladesh, a team you and I and nine our mates would fancy our chances against. For SA, all that will be tested is their ability to suspend their disbelief enough to pretend they are playing a test match.

So, while some of the premier format’s lesser teams are duking it out in far-flung series, the best XI in the game will have nothing to do except play Bangladesh in the two T20s and three one-day internationals that encompasses all the cricket currently on SA’s calendar between the end of the West Indies tour and the Chittagong test, except for the World Cup.

Welcome to life as a member of the Small Seven - or all the test teams outside of the Big Three comprised of India, England and Australia. Notice how, during the 195 days, England will play seven tests and Australia four. India have not announced a playing schedule that goes beyond the World Cup, but they tend to leave late such mundanities as telling their public where and against whom their team will play. And it is not as if India are going to have to beg for opponents. So we can be sure their test slate will be filled before long.

But, with all that going on, what of SA’s No. 1 ranking? The current version of the International Cricket Council’s test ranking predictor does not venture past the England-West Indies series in April and May. Even if England win 3-0 - which is entirely likely - they will not move up from their current third position.

However, plenty can happen in the nine tests that will be won, lost, drawn and perhaps even tied by other teams while SA have their noses pressed to the window with no way to get into the shop. It is patently unfair that, through no fault of their own, they are being frozen out of what they are best at.

Could this be by design, or does it all comes down to the economics of cricket? Don’t think too hard about that: one of those answers could be correct, but neither of them could possibly be right.