Hector wrote:The Dark Knight wrote:batmanbegins wrote:LaughingKookaburra wrote:[quote="Brodlach"]When the Test calendar was set out almost a decade ago I doubt many would have thought South Africa would have dropped so far.
Too many players are focusing on the “easier” dollars of the T20. Currently there are at least three T20 tournaments being played with good money being paid, I would guess more than they would get to play Test cricket
Dunno if I totally agree with that. Their current scenario is clearly short sighted management of their Test line up and not blooding new players at the right times. When all these recent blokes retired they then replaced them all at once with inexperienced players that are just getting fed to the wolves. The West Indies have a better batting lineup than this mob.
Doesn't help de cock quit on them to get the cash. Then Markram just hasn't lived up to the hype since 2018 and there best bat last year in Peterson is out hurt.
de Kock retired citing family reasons in December last year with his wife close to giving birth to their first child.
Like you said Markham has struggled for awhile now hence him not being on this tour and losing Petersen was a big loss as he'd just established himself at number three.
I agree with LK, SA had an absolute golden generation having one of the best teams world cricket will ever see and when they all eventually retired one after another in a relatively short space of time it was also going to be tough to replace them. The quota system makes things tricky for them too obviously, it just so happened that their players of colour that were apart of their great teams- Amla, Ninti and Philander were absolute world class cricketers plus guys like Duminy and Prince were solid international cricketers too. Now it's really only Rabada who is world class.
On Jarrod Kimber's podcast channel 99.94 there's a South African podcast featuring SA journalist Neil Manthorp who is currently on ABC Grandstand commentating and him and his co-host Lungani Zama have discussed all the things mentioned in the previous posts. The money topic continually comes up on the Podcast and the money offered by the T20 competitions is substantially more than what SA cricket pays their test cricketers. The fact that the South African first class teams only play seven games in a season is continually a talking point aswell.
I'm not sure how many of the current South African Test squad will be playing in the SA T20 competition (Bavuma didn't even get selected by a franchise initially) but looking through their active test cricketers SA don't currently have any players 'missing' due to T20 cricket, Dwaine Pretorious is one guy who continually gets T20 gigs in the various competitions but isn't close to test team and Rilee Rossouw currently playing for the Thunder in the BBL but he hasn't played test cricket.
To say the fans deserve more than what has been dished up is harsh, it's not CA's fault this South African team has struggled with the bat recently and they're not as good as they used to be.
Agree with all the sentiments already posted, great insight. I'm taking notes to bring up with my mates!
When I said we deserve more than this, it was a go at the West Indies, South Africa and the plight of test cricket rather than Cricket Australia. It's disappointing that out of 2 touring teams, not one is making a spectacle of it. WI battled in Perth and had they batted first and made 300 it might have been different. They are at least looking on the improve (finally). And I miss the touring matches against state sides as lead in games, now it's just a once off match against a PMXI (I hope when Australia go to England next year they play Netherlands and Ireland as part of the tour). I think CA have a small part to play in the fixturing of things (length of BBL season etc) but its really on each nation to ensure that they are looking after the game of cricket as a whole which includes a strong test competition, not just immediate dollars of T20 cricket.[/quote]
I don't mind the tour matches against the CAXI (effectively Australia A) as it exposes Australia's second tier players to international opposition as a whole team and they may come up against that opposition if any of the players are to move into the test squad if there's any injuries or when they eventually move into the test team.
And yes you're spot on, it's on each nation to look after the game in their country and that mainly how much money they pump into their cricket programs.
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2022 4:27 pm