Many have pointed the finger at the Australian bowlers for being unable to exceed expectations against a strong South African batting line-up on extremely flat pitches.
Yet fewer have pointed the finger at a schedule that doesn’t provide for maximum possible entertainment because it is not made with an international perspective in mind.
One consequence of the schedule is there are too many matches played without the best players as they are rested for more important encounters.
One-day matches between World Cups have a point. Unlike T20Is, there’s no one-day domestic circuit which arguably makes matches between World Cups redundant. More to the point, they make money, so they’re not going anywhere.
Ugh, you’re thinking. Not one of these articles.
But for those of you who haven’t pressed the x in the top right-hand corner of the screen yet, and thanks to the three of you, imagine the next time Australia’s attack is without so many of its best bowlers.
What if Joe Mennie, Chris Tremain and Daniel Worrall aren’t picked that next time? The blame will just go to another new guy who, if faced with the same situation the aforementioned trio are facing in South Africa, will probably struggle just as much. If he succeeds, it will in spite of the schedule.
It could be argued that a team succeeding in spite of the schedule is part of the attraction of international cricket. After they beat Bangladesh overseas in 2006, Australia had achieved everything in world cricket at that time.
Yet exhaustion very nearly cost them dearly in the first Test on that tour. Had they been facing an opponent who knew how to win Test matches, Australia would have been smashed.
To understand poor scheduling, you have to understand what goes behind making that schedule.
I don’t really enjoy writing about the administration of the game. It’s boring. I just want it to be done well so I can play or watch cricket.
Writing about cricket’s administration for the average cricket fan is a bit like that friendly IT guy who tries to teach you something. Please. I don’t want to learn.
Enthusiasm is what the average cricket fan has.
It’s much more easily activated for most by reacting to the symptom of the problem, rather than the cause.
I’m not currently on Twitter. I am on Facebook. While only Twitter has the interactive element that influences cricket reporting, both often contain material that suggests the filter feed of people is as low as what you might expect at a bar.
When Brett Geeves gave Shane Watson a worthy tribute earlier this year, Geeves presented an honest character assessment of himself as a 19-year-old. Part of that was how he would “get lippy with random punters who suggested that you bowled a pile of crapola”.
Try finding the story of a cricket administrator who would get lippy with random punters who suggested that the international schedule was a pile of crapola, and feel free to mark down how many changes in Prime Minister the country has while you’re looking.
Not that the entire international schedule is crapola.
For instance, it’s generally agreed that the holding of the World Cup every four years is sensible. Nor, despite their leading role in the game, should everything be traced back to the BCCI, this series between Australia and South Africa being a case in point.
Yet the schedule itself reflects a system that is not designed for each member to have an equal chance of proudly saying that they have the best Test, ODI and T20 teams in the world.
There needs to be a meaningful Test Championship or league to go with the World Cups in the other two formats. For that to be viable there needs to be a more sustainable schedule.
Maybe the Australian bowlers will exceed expectations in the last two matches of the series. If they can, and the Australian team can stagger off the canvas and make the South Africans win on points rather than through a knockout, it will be an achievement.
One that will go almost unnoticed.
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