“The ICC are not acting as custodians of the game. There are power brokers there who are more powerful than the ICC.” – Andrew Breetzke, SACA chief executive, on cricket’s coming crisis.
Telford Vice / Lord’s
IF you’ve watched what’s happened at Lord’s these past three days you would be forgiven for thinking Test cricket is in rude health. South Africa played with confidence and conviction beyond expectation, and reaped the rewards by inflicting England’s only innings defeat at home in almost seven years.
The home side’s fans will hope a team went into the match having reeled off four emphatic victories batting second this summer have not been derailed merely by having to take guard first against a quality pace attack.
Three days into the series, the narrative is already rich with plot and subplot. Onto Old Trafford and the Oval for the next gripping chapters, and many more after that. Except, for the South Africans, that will not be the case.
According to the FTP released by the ICC this week, England will play 43 Tests from 2023 to 2027. South Africa? Not quite two-thirds as many: 28. The South Africans will contest 15 series, but only two of them will consist of three Tests. The rest will be two-match affairs. Just three of England’s 15 rubbers will be restricted to two Tests. Of the other dozen, four will be of five matches each.
“I just know we’re playing 28 Tests in five years, which … I guess we could be playing more,” Dean Elgar said at a press conference on Friday after his team’s rousing victory. “It’s a sad thing but so be it. I can’t say too much about that because I might get into trouble.” During a later question that was laced with the premise that South Africa should play more Tests, he interjected with, “A lot more.”
Elgar’s team arrived in England on top of the World Test Championship standings, and have now extended their lead and increased their chances of being invited back to Lord’s in June next year to play in the final. They are in danger of being the best in a business they are being systematically shut out of — partly at the behest of their own board, who are in creasing need of funds to keep the cricket industry afloat.
CSA need to clear their January calendars to accommodate their new T20 franchise tournament, which is due to start next year. But January is also prime time for international cricket in the country. Something will have to give, and its the national team’s fixture list. Already CSA have withdrawn them from an ODI series in Australia, forfeiting World Cup Super League points in the process and risking their direct qualification for the 2023 World Cup.
On commentary during lunch on Sunday, Graeme Smith — the new league’s commissioner — defended the venture and the decision to pull out of the Australian tour: “For four weeks of an entire year the priority will be the league. If we hadn’t done this South African cricket could have probably lost eight to 10 players to the UAE league [which is set to run simultaneously]. So there has to be an element of investment into our game to keep our players.”
Years of maladministration, a dwindling wider economy and the effects of the pandemic on global markets had created a perfect storm that had driven cricket in South Africa to the edge of a financial abyss. If another revenue source isn’t secured, the game could be hit by irreparable damage.
“The pressure on nations like New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa to stay financially sustainable to keep up with England, India and the world game is hugely important,” Smith said. “World cricket can’t afford South Africa or any one of the top nations to start fading away [in terms of] the standard of the game and the investment into the game.”
Andrew Breetzke, the chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA), shared Smith’s concerns and called on the ICC to address what he saw as a looming calamity. “With fewer Tests being played and more two-match series Test cricket is being diluted,” Breetzke told reporters during an impromptu lunchtime visit to the Lord’s pressbox.
“FICA [the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations] and SACA have been saying for the last five years that the ICC should be taking ownership of this by looking out for how we balance bilateral and international cricket with domestic T20 events. If they don’t do that we’re going to see Test cricket diminished among the non-Big Three [comprised of India, England and Australia]. We’re exactly there, and that’s disappointing.”
Why were the ICC not tackling the issue? “It’s not in their interests. The ICC are not acting as the custodians of the game. There are power brokers there who are more powerful than the ICC. That’s our reality.”
The ICC’s central weakness is that they are a member-led organisation. If some of those members are exponentially more wealthy than the rest they become bigger than the game itself — which could suffer in numerous ways. For instance, the BCCI is good for cricket in that it makes the largest single chunk of its money. But that’s also bad for the game because it means all the other countries have to dance to the juggernaut’s tune, sometimes at their own expense.
For instance, in March, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen, Anrich Nortjé, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram chose to play in the IPL rather than in a Test series against Bangladesh. “Our guys not playing Test matches to go to the IPL is a reality check of the pressure South African cricket is under,” Breetzke said.
“If you’re not playing India enough your broadcast revenue is down,” Breetzke said. “Sponsor revenue is down because the team are not playing enough but also because of the last five years at CSA [administratively]. No-one wants to get involved in our cricket. That’s the sad reality. So there’s a lot of work to be done by CSA — which, to give them credit, they’re doing — to enhance CSA’s reputation so that they can attract sponsors. That’s more critical than ever.”
What were the chances of those efforts succeeding? “The market has changed post-Covid,” Breetzke said. “You’re not getting big sponsorships anywhere. [South African] rugby have the same challenge and rugby are highly successful [having won three World Cups]. So now we’re seeing more shorter, smaller, specific sponsorship deals. That’s where CSA have got to up their game and be a lot more on the ball.
“If you want to get somewhere to where there’s a positive approach to what the game should be, then big countries like Australia and England have to say the status quo isn’t in the interests of the game. But it’s not as if Australia and England don’t have challenges, especially Australia. As long as everyone else is under pressure, you just chase the money. What’s in the best interests of the game is definitely not only what’s in the best interests of India.”
So, through gritted teeth, Breetzke voiced SACA’s support for CSA’s T20 league: “It’s critical for the survival of CSA. We’ve got three sources of revenue in CSA — broadcast revenue, sponsorship, and ICC revenue. Two of those are reducing. We need to find a fourth source of revenue, and that is a T20 tournament.”
But South Africa’s presence as a Test team will shrink as a consequence. So there was meaning beyond Elgar’s words when he said: “You need to play every Test like it’s your last game.”
Because, he didn’t say, it might be your last game.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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