The entire world cricket fraternity—including losers Australia—needs to embrace South Africa’s victory in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s on Saturday. It was South Africa’s first ICC title since the late Hansie Cronje led them to victory in the inaugural Champions Trophy (then called the Wills International Cup) in Dhaka in 1998. It was also the first world title for the Proteas.
It should be noted that South Africa won the ICC mace as the world’s number one Test-playing nation three times, but that was based on cumulative points accrued over a two-year period and before the one-off WTC final, which was first staged in 2021.
The sight of a full house in glorious weather showcasing Lord’s at its finest, with cricket played in whites with a red ball and in daytime as it originally was going back centuries, provided a picture-perfect scenario just a couple of weeks after the end of the protracted IPL and won the hearts of viewers around the world, including crucially in Test cricket-sceptical India. Every neutral fan would have been backing South Africa, not only because of its long title drought since its readmission to international cricket in 1991 but also since Australia’s domination over the last couple of decades in all three formats meant the cricket world was crying out for new champions.
Where Test cricket scores over limited-overs cricket is the manner in which fortunes sway back and forth every session. This keeps spectators and viewers on the edge of their seats and makes it impossible to guess a winner till the end. The WTC final showcased Test cricket at its finest, with masterly fast bowling and some brilliant batting, particularly in South Africa’s second innings as they overcame the debilitating tag of cricket’s ace chokers. The only thing lacking this time was quality spin bowling.
While one hopes this victory gives a boost to Test cricket in South Africa where it is lagging, there is no papering over the facts that the WTC points system is severely flawed, and the ultimate winners were fortunate to be in the final in the first place. Nevertheless, the introduction of this format has been a masterstroke by the ICC, and cricket will be the ultimate winner in such a scenario. India was disappointed not to make their third WTC final in a row, having lost both in 2021 and 2023.
There is also a debate over whether England should get to stage the final every time. It seems only fair that the country that tops the points table be allowed to host the ‘Ultimate Test’. But that will need a tweaking of the schedule, which currently culminates in the final being staged in June, where England is best placed to be hosts due to weather conditions.
