Test series – and Test cricket – is at a pivotal point

“Never make excuses. Your friends don’t need them and your foes won’t believe them.”

These words from John Wooden, famed college basketball coach from UCLA, rang in my ears as I listened to Dean Elgar blame the Gabba pitch for his team’s poor performance. Elgar doth protest much. It didn’t stop the media from eviscerating the performance of his top order.

No doubt the Gabba deck was green and spicy, and bounced more than most pitches, but it didn’t deviate from the seam any more than I have seen it do at the Wanderers in Johannesburg for example. Both are noted bowler-friendly pitches.

South Africa landed on our shores with an unproven batting line-up, and it is still exactly that. In the past three years, their top six have the worst record on the road of all Test teams. From the best touring team, boasting the likes of Smith, Kallis, Amla and de Villiers averaging 48, they have slipped to a paltry 27 from their current top six. What we saw in Brisbane was abject, even painful.

Their top order looked like the lower order trying to hang on. Kyle Verreynne aside, they were totally ineffectual. If a batsman thinks only about survival, he is most unlikely to make a big score. Eventually, a good ball comes along with your name on it. It is counter-intuitive, but when one seeks scoring opportunities, one is in the best position to defend or let the better balls go. When solely focused on defence, even bad balls are hard to put away because the mind is dull and the feet are flat.

That is the biggest difference I have seen in Travis Head in the past two seasons. From someone who seemed intent on survival, he has flourished into a free-flowing batter who looks to score from every ball. His first-innings performance in Brisbane was essentially the difference between the two teams. Take that innings out and Australia could have lost the game in two days.

Travis Head’s batting was the big difference between Australia and South Africa in the first Test.Credit: Getty

The South African brains trust must impress upon their batsmen that they have a bat in their hand for one reason, and one reason alone; to score runs. If they do that, they will put the Australian bowlers on notice that less than good balls will be scored from.

The MCG pitch won’t be as lively as the one at the Gabba, but it has offered seam movement with the new ball in recent years. Both teams rely on their bowling attacks - but in Smith and Labuschagne, Australia have two world-class players; three if you count the out-of-form David Warner and four if you include the fast-improving Head.

Warner is back where he burst onto the scene in 2009 with a blazing 89 in 43 balls in a T20 game against South Africa. He has been flat-footed in his outings against the red ball this summer, but to see him bouncing around on the balls of his feet like a young Mike Tyson - or even a young David Warner - will be the first sign that he is zoned in.

Usman Khawaja is a quality player and Cameron Green is full of promise, but will need to fulfil that with the bat sooner rather than later, for his own peace of mind. As an aside, while I can’t blame him for taking the money on offer from the IPL, I wonder whether it is a good career choice for his development as a batsman? It will put a lot of pressure on his young body with virtually non-stop cricket coming up.

MCG curator Matt Page inspects the deck on Christmas morning.Credit: Getty

Mitch Marsh made a similar choice early in his career and has yet to realise his potential as an explosive middle-order player who could bowl some quality overs in Test cricket. Glenn Maxwell is another whose enormous Test batting potential has remained unfulfilled due to the demands and effects of T20 cricket.

Improving your ability as a hitter does little to develop your skill and mindset to make meaningful runs in Test cricket. Players like Mitch Starc are rare and to be commended for prioritising Test cricket at the cost of a huge hit to the back pocket.

We are at a pivotal point in Test cricket. South Africa must bounce back and show much more skill and resolve to put pressure on the Australian bowlers in the Boxing Day Test. If they don’t or can’t, valid questions will be asked about the decline of Test cricket outside of the Big Three.

Many in South Africa say that the domestic game is just not producing good young batters. The best bowlers are away too often and the next generation of batters are simply not getting the challenges they need.
This is a problem that most countries face, but it is more obvious outside the stronger nations.

David Warner and wife Candice walk on the MCG pitch on Christmas Day.Credit: Getty

The elephant in the room is the fiscal imbalance between the Big Three – India, England and Australia – and the rest of the Test playing countries. People have been beseeching the ICC to tackle this problem for years, but the ICC is controlled by India and abetted by England and Australia.

The senseless proliferation of T20 leagues has led to the unavailability of the best players in many countries. The Big Three need to urgently convene, brainstorm and generously resource the cricketing renaissance of the West Indies, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, if they are really serious about the health of Test cricket.

They cannot continue in the same vein, filling their own coffers and opting to play frequently with one another, whilst the rest of the Test-playing nations are on their knees. If they don’t, we will have more one-sided Test matches that no one wants to host and no one wants to watch.

It has been obvious for some time that the West Indies need help and now it appears that South Africa are struggling, too. Somehow, the wealthy nations need to give ground, and offer strong support to these countries that have produced proven Test cricketers and competitive Test teams, in the past.

The West Indies have their most experienced players plying their trade in T20 tournaments around the world, as does South Africa.

The encroachment of T20 tournaments, has resulted in more players turning their backs on Test cricket and others suffering injuries from their non-stop dalliance. T20 cricket is fast becoming an existential threat to Test cricket, not its saviour, as some would have you believe.

Australia and England must set self-interest to one side, combine resources, and put pressure on India to be the benevolent dictator, by determinedly funding initiatives, programmes and measures world-wide, to try and re-kindle the love for and survival of Test cricket. Otherwise it is doomed to be played just between the Big Three.

This is cricket’s climate emergency and needs to be tackled with the utmost urgency and desperation.
The rest will otherwise run their own T20 tournaments and give up on Test cricket permanently, as they can’t pay their players enough to keep them in national colours.

But, history tells us that we shouldn’t expect too much from the wealthier nations. As Paul Keating once quoted his mentor, Jack Lang: “In the race of life, always back self-interest — at least you know it is trying”.

We can be sure South Africa will be trying at the MCG. For the health of our game, let us fervently cheer them on.

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