Ashes shows Test cricket is still alive … but where are the Proteas?

Another thrilling Ashes Test concluded late on day 5 at Edgbaston on Tuesday as Australia edged England in the first of 5 Tests. Cricket followers have been handled to a feast for the full 5 days, with all three outcomes a chance proper till the last session of the match. What was very clear all through the fifth day and after the match, was that cricket followers, even impartial ones down right here in South Africa, have been glued to the motion and lived by way of each supply and run. The consensus: Test cricket is still tops! And that is the case repeatedly,…

Another thrilling Ashes Test concluded late on day 5 at Edgbaston on Tuesday as Australia edged England in the first of 5 Tests.

Cricket followers have been handled to a feast for the full 5 days, with all three outcomes a chance proper till the last session of the match.

What was very clear all through the fifth day and after the match, was that cricket followers, even impartial ones down right here in South Africa, have been glued to the motion and lived by way of each supply and run. The consensus: Test cricket is still tops!

And that is the case repeatedly, regardless of all the hullabaloo about the reputation and rise of T20 cricket and institution of leagues and competitions throughout the world.

Yes, the SA20 was a serious success on this nation earlier this yr and it’ll once more be the case in 2024, but ask any cricketer, man or lady, what format they like and it’s probably they’ll say first-class or Test cricket.

True check

It is still the true check, where grinding out an innings, where bowling over after over to attempt get a batter out, where setting fields shrewdly and where ways and taking calculated dangers correctly come to the fore.

With world cricket organised the approach it is, one’s pressured to marvel where Test cricket is headed.

Will England, India and Australia still be thought-about the huge attracts and leaders in the sport, what number of Tests will they play in comparison with groups comparable to South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, and different Test-playing nations, or will T20 cricket be much more dominant in 20 years from now?

The South Africa A staff are presently in Sri Lanka, taking part in the second of their unofficial “Tests”.

But with the Proteas not in motion in pink ball cricket till later this yr and their Test schedule vastly curtailed on the ICC Future Tours Programme, what is the level even of the likes of Senuran Muthusamy (7/122, 5/53 and 6/101) and Tristan Stubbs (117 batting at quantity three) performing effectively and giving the selectors one thing to consider?

What are their Proteas prospects when the Proteas hardly play Tests these days?