West Indies wreckage offers a more salient tale for Test cricket

Two contrasting Test series took place parallel to one another, with the manner in which they unfolded providing a display of the format’s grandeur, and concerns for its future.

England won a slow-burner at Lord’s that featured the very best of Test cricket — the mental and physical demands to play it, the raw emotion it evokes, and the skill of its finest protagonists. It had a suitably dramatic conclusion too that included a bizarre dismissal. 

Meanwhile, Australia won a wild three-day contest in Kingston in which the West Indies were bowled out for the second-lowest total in the history of Test cricket. 

It’s hard not to view those two matches and indeed the entire Caribbean series and not see everything that is right and wrong with the modern game. 

Because in isolation, Lord’s and those first three Tests of that five-match series have been a great advert for the five-day format — not only for why it should remain a five-day contest, but also the competitiveness of the two teams. 

Similarly, when assessed by itself, Sabina Park demonstrated why it's so difficult for Test cricket to attract a new audience — outside England, Australia and India — and why the format is struggling to hold on to spectators in the Caribbean and in other countries including South Africa and Sri Lanka.

The disparity between the haves — who especially in India’s case have plenty — and the have-nots, was no more clearly on display than in those two contests and series. 

The West Indies don’t have the financial strength to maintain a proficient first-class feeder system for their Test team. In addition, as pitches used in that series showed, greater expertise is needed to create conditions which are conducive to Test cricket being played. 

But for some brief flickers, most notably in Brisbane in 2024, when Shamar Joseph took seven wickets, the West Indies barely make an impact in Tests nowadays. They have an outstanding set of young seam bowlers, but their batting has been gutted by the attraction of T20 Leagues, for young players. 

What they need is to play more Test cricket. But doing so, as senior administrators from their board have outlined, costs money. So much like South Africa and Sri Lanka, they play the bare minimum of matches against the other five participants in the World Test Championship and try to squeeze in a three-match series when playing against one of the ‘Big Three,’ especially at home. 

South Africa will be doing the same next year when Australia and England will each play in three-match series here. Test cricket is not financially viable, unless it involves matches against India, Australia and England. 

I can promise you now that we'd love to play against everybody more often, especially if there's some big money series so that we can also make some money

—  Proteas batting coach Ashwell Prince

But those three teams are taking up huge chunks of the calendar by playing each other — the current five Test series in England, follows India facing Australia in five matches last summer. Later this year England head Down Under for the Ashes — also five matches. India will host Australia in 2027, for another five match series.

During the World Test Championship final, Proteas batting coach Ashwell Prince, who played 66 Tests — 31 of those against the ‘Big Three’ — said South Africa wants to play more Test cricket, particularly of the variety that is also financially lucrative. “I can promise you now that we'd love to play against everybody more often, especially if there's some big money series so that we can also make some money,” he said. 

Good luck finding a space in the calendar for that. It’s one of the reasons that Cricket South Africa has pressed ahead so firmly with the SA20, to allow it to absorb financial losses from series not involving the Big Three. It’s why last year’s four T20 Internationals against India, which saw CSA pocket R600m were so important — the organisation was able to absorb the losses from hosting four home Tests against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

The ICC started its AGM in Singapore on Thursday where it is understood that a two-tier Test structure will be discussed. It was England and Australian authorities who first mooted such a structure, which, not surprisingly, would involve those two countries facing India in series every three years instead of four as is currently the case. 

Where would that leave the West Indies? Wallowing in a second division playing the likes of Afghanistan and Ireland, and with very little prospect of reaching the heights that made them such a legendary side, which helped to create the foundation on which professional cricket was built. 

The West Indies, at one time cricket’s most successful, celebrated and watchable team, have finished bottom of the World Test Championship in the last three cycles, didn’t qualify for the last 50-over World Cup, and were knocked out of the T20 World Cup, which they partly hosted, in the group stages.

What has happened to the West Indies could easily happen to South Africa — even as the country basks in the glow of the World Test Championship triumph. Creating a strong first-class system is a challenge CSA has been struggling with for a few years — mainly because of money. 

While the series in England at the moment deserves to be celebrated, what unfolded in the Caribbean is far more important for the format.

What’s the point of only three teams playing Test cricket?