Big picture – South Africa’s WTC triumph nourishes Test cricket

South Africa’s WTC triumph nourishes Test cricket (AP Photo)

At the Lord's balcony, South Africa players and coaching staff stood en masse. Only seven runs were needed for victory, but the collective body language was still taut. Keshav Maharaj had his arms around the excellent Kagiso Rabada. Head coach Shukri Conrad stood next to the team's batting coach Ashwell Prince. Captain Temba Bavuma sat almost motionless in his chair, biting his nails. For a team of inherited heartbreak, the magnitude of the whole thing was taking time to sink in.

Then, they got over the line. The merry song of the Rainbow Nation became the tune of the cricket world. They couldn't do it in the T20 World Cup final last year, losing the game against India from a position where they needed 30 off as many balls. At Lord's, on a bigger occasion, hope was no longer a dangerous thing.

Bavuma and his boys embraced the historic moment with dignity – no animated gestures or in-your-face celebrations. Class oozed. In the stands, South African fans sang the skipper's name. On the field, the Proteas silenced the naysayers who had questioned their entry to the World Test Championship (WTC) final without winning a series against the ‘Big Three’ – India, England and Australia.

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Bavuma himself played a match-winning hand in his team's triumph, batting on one leg and scoring a gritty half-century. Aiden Markram would have loved to be there until the end, but the opener honoured Lord's with his epochal 136 in a fourth innings chase of 282, which looked improbable at the start, against a world-class Australian bowling attack.

This win offers a throwback to South Africa’s triumph in the 1995 Rugby World Cup that unified a divided nation. That was ‘more than just rugby’. This is more than just cricket.

“Here's an opportunity for us as a nation, divided as we are, to unite,” Bavuma said at the post-match presentation. “You can be rest assured we will celebrate as one.”

The Proteas captain took satisfaction from proving the doubters wrong. “We got ourselves into the final, there were doubters on the route we took,” he said. “This win quashes that.”

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New Zealand won the inaugural WTC. It barely changed things in terms of popularity of the sport in the country. Cricket actually is way down the pecking order in popularity list in New Zealand. South Africa’s case is different. Here, cricket sits cheek by jowl with rugby as regards capturing fans’ imagination. Also, the historical backdrop adds a far greater significance to South Africa’s success.

Hopefully, it will have a positive commercial impact on South African cricket – the longer format to be precise. Hopefully, the superpowers of the game will no longer restrict there Test assignments against the Proteas to just two matches per series going ahead. The 2025 WTC served a reminder that in a global sport, less is not more.