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News that Australia and South Africa are considering staging longer Test series is heartening for fans of the oldest form of the game.
The countries are negotiating potential four-Test series in the future, in recognition of the superb cricket produced in their encounters over recent years, Cricinfo reported yesterday.
The three-Test series in South Africa spawned some ferocious and scintillating play, and ended in the most thrilling of fashions in the dying moments of the final day last week.
Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards told Cricinfo he was hopeful the nations would play elongated series in the future.
Australia and South Africa have not played more than three Tests in a series since the Proteas’ readmission to international cricket in the early ‘90s.
“They deserve more, and you’ve got to recognise the quality of the cricket I think,” Mr Edwards said. “I think it’s not a bad stepping stone to have recognised quality by another Test or two. That principle might come out.”
It would mark a welcome move against the trend towards increasingly shortened Test series. The encroachment of Twenty20, both at an international and domestic level, has put the squeeze on the longest form of the game.
Fortuitously, the storied Ashes rivalry has not been eroded, maintaining its five-Test series structure.
Australia’s heated contests with India are also being well recognised, with the contest Down Under next summer to be the third consecutive four-Test series between the sides.
I was similarly pleased to see Australia have a six-Test home-and-away showdown against the blossoming New Zealand side over the 2015-16 summer.
The Kiwis boast a brilliant young new-ball pairing in Tim Southee and Trent Boult, an outstanding skipper in Brendon McCullum, a world-class batsman in Ross Taylor and two emerging all-rounders in Corey Anderson and Jimmy Neesham.
They have the makings of a side that could challenge any outfit in the world, and their six-Test encounter with Australia should be riveting stuff, cherished by fans from both countries.
Such fervent support and appreciation was manifest over the course of the Aussies’ tussle with South Africa. While the sizes of the crowds may have been disappointing – they always are in South Africa – the series was closely followed and absorbed by fans around the world.
Four-Test series between these two nations could be planned with confidence because both field such consistently competitive sides.
Since their readmission, the Proteas have always been one of the most formidable Test line-ups. Meanwhile, even at the depths of their ‘crisis’, circa 2011, the Aussies remained a dangerous outfit. In that year they stunned the fancied heavyweights South Africa on their home soil, drawing their two-Test series.
Since the end of Australia’s generation of global dominance in 2008, which also marked the beginning of South Africa’s golden era, the Test win-loss ledger between the sides stands deadlocked at 6-6.
The teams have also produced some of the most breathtaking Tests of this period. In December 2008, the Proteas confounded Australia by completing the second-highest run chase in history to win the first Test at the WACA.
The final Test of that series provided one of the iconic moments in Australia-South Africa Tests when Proteas’ skipper Graeme Smith loped to the wicket with a broken hand to try to save the match at the SCG.
In 2011, debutant Pat Cummins steered Australia to a dramatic two-wicket win to square the series at Johannesburg. The following year saw another debutant, Faf du Plessis, produce similar heroics to help South Africa avoid defeat at Adelaide.
Then, of course, we had the remarkable Test at Newlands last week, when Ryan Harris somehow willed his battered body to secure two last-gasp wickets.
Australia and South Africa consistently conjure beguiling cricket. Their rivalry may not be backed by history like the Ashes, but it is every bit as potent.
A four-Test series would be a wonderful initiative.