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Cricket is the unfairest of all team sports. Individuals are exposed to more elements of unpredictability and subjective bias than in any other competitive environment, and there is nothing their teammates can do to help in the moment. It’s one of the reasons we love it, especially when this unpredictable environment spans four innings over multiple days.Now, at an international level, this unfairness exists off the field more than ever, especially regarding fixtures. At the beginning of the year England and Wales Cricket Board CEO Richard Gould admitted, “At the start of every Future Tours programme the first fixtures entered on the calendar are the series between India, England and Australia. Everything else has to fit in around them.”He is a straight talker, though he wasn’t completely accurate on that occasion. The first dates blocked off are actually those of the Indian Premier League (IPL), but, as one of the “big three” cricket nations, Gould naturally saw no need to state the obvious.The IPL has expanded from six weeks to nine, and the big three only play five-Test series between themselves. There is an ICC event every year — two T20 World Cups, a proper World Cup and a Champions Trophy — in every four-year cycle, and every major nation has to keep a window open for its own domestic T20 tournament.The calendar for bilateral international cricket has been squeezed more than ever, and now that the IPL has brought forward its start to the middle of March next year, the southern hemisphere season is under even greater pressure. South Africa traditionally hosted a second bilateral tour at the end of the summer, but that is no longer possible. All hail the IPL.Cricket South Africa had to squeeze in 52 days of men’s international cricket this summer with eight Test matches and a dozen white-ball games against Australia, Bangladesh and England. It was a challenge, and, inevitably, there were some nasty compromises, the worst being a Test match against Bangladesh scheduled for Supersport Park from Monday to Friday, out of school holidays. Rumour has it the Titans offered the duddest of fixtures to other unions, but there were no takers.The issue with such scheduling is that it is not “the best of a bad situation”. It’s worse than that. It will contribute to the perception that Test cricket has no future in South Africa and that the country’s cricket followers are only interested in the SA20 — which appears to be the only cricket they watch.If the Centurion Test had started a day earlier, like the Wanderers Test which precedes it, both venues would at least have had a Sunday to entice a meaningful crowd. But that would have meant just two days between matches, and the World Cricketers Association’s MOU with the ICC stipulates that a three-day break is the minimum for player welfare. So, it is what it is. But it needn’t be.Every host union has the authority to decree the length of a Test match. England staged a four-day Test against Ireland, and South Africa did so against Zimbabwe a few years ago. There is little chance that the Proteas and Bangladesh will play into a fifth day in South African conditions, especially at those venues. Indeed, if South Africa had staged only four-day Tests with 98-overs per day, no fixture in the past five years would have been drawn.And if four-day Tests don’t appeal to outdated “traditionalists”, then stick to five days — and play under lights with a pink ball. The grass banks of Centurion are a delight at sunset and under floodlights, even just for the final session each day, so the kids can still get a full night’s sleep on a school day.Cricket, in general, has perfected the art of finding and placing problems ahead of solutions. Would the WCA have objected to a two-day break between Tests in a one-off scenario? It would have worked to South Africa’s advantage anyway. If fast bowlers needed to be rested and rotated, the Proteas currently have greater depth in that department than any other team in the world.Finally, it’s goodbye from me. This column shall cease to exist from next week. Many thanks to Business Day for having me so long. But please feel free to subscribe to “Manners-on-Cricket” on the Substack platform if you’d like more. Adieu…
