Patrick Compton

South Africa's decision to send a second-string team to New Zealand totally makes sense. Any country, outside of the Big three, who is not prioritizing T20 cricket is shooting itself in the foot. South Africa was criticized last year too when they cancelled an ODI series in Australia and risked their direct WC qualification for SA20. In hindsight, it turned out to be a great move. SA20 last season was a big success, is reviving cricket in South Africa and extremely important for the financial health of players and cricket in general. Test cricket has become a luxury which only the rich boards can afford. There is every possibility that in the coming decades it will be confined to Australia, England, and India only. It has a niche audience due to which it is becoming very hard to sell. Australia and England can afford it due to the value of their TV rights and gate-money, India make so much money from IPL that they can subsidize Test cricket without worrying about the revenues. For every other board, it’s a loss-making business (especially if it does not involve a tour by the Big Three). James Anderson became a Test specialist because he could still make close to a million US dollars/year from ECB contract and match fees. A non-Big3 team can never afford to pay that much to its Test players. Players outside of the Big Three don’t want to play Tests either. If you hear something different, it’s just a lip-service to Test cricket. Every budding cricketer is aiming for contracts in the T20 leagues. And any current non-Big3 player who considers himself a Test specialist is because he does not have the skill to excel in the short formats. It’s unrealistic to think that teams like Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka etc will be able to compete with Australia, England and India in Test cricket in the coming decades. ODIs future is bleak too. So, the only format where they can compete is T20s so it should take priority. Change is the only constant in life and importance of cricket is moving towards shorter versions. The sooner you realize T20 will be the pinnacle, the better it will be.