Johannesburg - When AB de Villiers made one of the greatest Test hundreds of his career against Australia in 2018, St George’s Park was barely half full for his first 60-odd runs that Saturday afternoon.
It was worse the next day, a bright Sunday morning when De Villiers completed his century with some sensational strokeplay. He was looking around to find people to wave his bat to in a ground that was only a third full.
In 2013, when Dale Steyn produced one of the most crushing spells of his career against Pakistan, picking up 6/8, the Wanderers was barely a third full on a sunny Saturday morning.
In the last few days, since the release of the Future Tours Programme, there were lots of South Africans bemoaning the lack of Test cricket the Proteas have in the next four years. However, all that whinging isn’t reflected by bums on seats when the team has played a Test, despite some of the greatest players of the last 20 years featuring for the Proteas.
When it comes to cricket in South Africa, South Africans long ago made up their minds as to what they prefer. All those empty seats at St George’s Park in 2018 were filled with people two years later when the Australians returned for a nondescript pair of limited overs series, with the ground in Gqeberha hosting a T20 International on a Sunday.
What was Cricket South Africa supposed to make of that? What do sponsors see?
South African cricket fans love one Test – the New Year’s match at Newlands. SuperSport Park’s hosting of the Boxing Day Test has been successful and it was a pity the pandemic stopped fans from going because it would have been interesting to see if it was just a novelty or something people in Gauteng had taken to.
Cricket SA had tried for years to make the Boxing Day Test a marquee event like the one in Melbourne, but citizens of and holiday-makers to Durban and Gqeberha at that time of year showed no interest beyond day one of the match.
So while there is gnashing of teeth on social media, angry voice notes to radio stations and teary-eyed blogs, there also needs to be a reflection of what CSA has seen with Test cricket in the last decade, and sponsors too.
Magnificent South African players, great South African teams brilliantly led, have played cricket of the highest quality but, with the exception of Newlands, SuperSport Park, and the odd Saturday at the Wanderers, have done so in front of rows of empty seats.
SA supporters long ago made up their minds that regardless of the quality of players in the men’s national team, they weren’t interested in Test cricket.
So cool, blame Cricket SA; it’s been easy to do so given the mountain of mayhem created by incompetent administrators in the last decade. But ‘fans’ in this country need to take a look in the mirror, because they are just as responsible as anyone for the next generation of Proteas, featuring one of the greatest bowling attacks of all time, playing fewer Test matches.
It’s your bloody fault.
@shockerhess