The Sands of the Game Are Shifting, and Not Just the Ashes

(Photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images)

Deserts are an ever changing landscape. From one day to the next the dunes shift from place to place, rolling over the landscape made asunder with assistance of the wind. The only constant would be the sun, and as an Arabic proverb states, “all sunshine makes a desert”.

Cricket’s great desert over the last decade and a half has had an eerily Australian golden tinge to it, with many wanderers, journeyman, and enemies perishing in its vast and ruthless landscape.

Oases of opportunity have been few and far between: the 2005 Ashes stands out as an example, when a side with most of its great players were beaten in a contest by a more willing and more dangerous opponent.

Now, with England’s most recent Ashes triumph, the natural landscape of the cricketing world appears to have moved from a dominant and unforgiving Australian desert to a climate resembling South Africa’s, as an example.

While England managed to dethrone the Australians again (to most people’s surprises), the more significant conclusion is that the Australians are clearly going through a "rebuilding phase" (a euphemism for not being best).

How England managed to win the series while averaging approximately six runs less a wicket is beyond me, and the only other time they pulled off such a feat was when Javed Aktar screwed South Africa more then a cork in a wine bottle back in 1998.

South Africa, for a country of its size, has a vast microcosm of climates within its borders. In the north you have the Highveld, with summer rains and biting winters. On the east coast, the air is thick and sticky with humidity that can make anyone sweat.

In the west, you have the Kalahari, a landscape not rich with fauna but still spell binding in its beauty. The Eastern Cape is more rustic and hilly, with bushes and shrubs being predominant but even then it is a pleasure to look at on a warm summer day when the sun sets, especially in the hinterland around Alice.

Lastly, there is the Western Cape, which is closer to Greece then to Bloemfontein. Cape Town’s natural beauty is well recognised around the world.

However, will a Sri Lankan monsoon or an Indian summer blow away the fabled Protea, or will an English shower some how wash away what was there before?

The talk that often surrounds Test cricket of late is comparable to an epitaph or obituary. Many scribes have proclaimed that Test cricket’s time is limited, soon to be engulfed by a tsunami of flat pitches, lights, sixes and 120 balls per an innings. Even Shane Warne has stated that one day international cricket has reached it’s expiry date (I would agree with him there).

To those so willingly ready to cast aside the truest measure of a cricketer’s ability, I say this: it has never been a more interesting time to watch cricket then now. No longer is cricket’s state of international relations ruled by a seemingly omnipotent and dominant hegemon. Instead, the politics of cricket has descended into a pluralistic society, not quite anarchistic but the difference between the top sides is minor.

South Africa may be number one for now, but with the way things are changing so quickly in the game of cricket, there hasn’t been a better time to grab a seat in the crowd with a beer or cool drink in your hand and feast on Test cricket.

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