Newlands Cricket Ground: Legendary batter AB de Villiers said he was left unhappy over the recently-concluded Test series between India and South Africa not having a third match and felt that the rise in T20 leagues is to be blamed for it.
South Africa won the opening Test in Centurion by an innings and 32 runs inside three days before India emerged victorious in the second Test at Cape Town by seven wickets, which ended in four and a half sessions, making it the shortest match played in the format.
“I am not happy that there is not a third Test. You have to blame the T20 cricket going around the world for that. I do not know whom to blame, but I sense something is wrong. If you want to see all the teams compete and see who is the best Test team in the world, something has to change,” said de Villiers on his Youtube channel.
There were concerns over the nature of the pitch at the Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town, where there was excessive variable bounce and seam movement for the fast-bowlers. De Villiers, though, termed the Cape Town pitch as ‘pretty stock-standard’.
“It was a pretty stock-standard wicket, in my opinion. I remember jumping around there on day one. If you can just get through the first session on day one, it gets easier. If you see the players playing their shots and not hanging around, they were doing well.”
“I remember Ben Stokes scoring a double-hundred there. I scored some hundreds there. You cannot allow bowlers like Vernon Philander, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada to keep bowling on off stump.”
South Africa’s next Test assignment will be a two-match tour of New Zealand in February. Their leading players, though, will stay at home to play the second season of SA20, starting from January 10, as the league clashes with the Test tour of New Zealand.
The 14-member South Africa team for the New Zealand tour will be captained by opener Neil Brand, who is amongst the seven uncapped players in the team. The move brought immense criticism for South Africa in prioritising their franchise T20 league competition over a Test series for financial sustainability reasons.
De Villiers believes Test cricket is under pressure from T20s and admitted players and coaches would rather opt for franchise leagues than play the longer formats like Tests and ODIs.
“It (South Africa’s Test squad for New Zealand) has sent shockwaves around the cricketing world and has made it clear that Test cricket is under pressure, for that matter even ODI cricket and the whole system is turning around T20 cricket.”
“The players, the board and coaches will turn towards where there is more money. You cannot blame them for thinking about their future with their family.”