Watching South Africa in Australia is the first time I fear for the future of Test cricket

Ricky Ponting has said he sees the Australians dominating Test series 2-0 victory over South Africa was the first time he feared for the future of Test cricket in an exclusive interview Wisden Cricket Monthly star interviewer Mel Farrell.

In the latest issue of WCM, Ponting admitted that despite the near-constant clamor questioning the future of Test cricket, it wasn’t until South Africa suffered two heavy defeats in Australia that he began to question what the format would look like in the coming years. . He was skeptical that the increased amount of limited-overs cricket played worldwide could be held solely responsible for the state of play in the longest form of the game.

People have pointed the finger at T20 cricket, but every country plays T20 cricket, he told Farrell. It’s not just one or two that play. I mean England play more than anyone and look at the Test cricket they are playing at the moment. So it can obviously have a really good, positive effect on Test cricket as well.

“I think the obvious answer is to try to find a way for the ICC to fund some of these series,” he says. So it’s not just the bigs who are playing against themselves because these guys, West Indies and South Africa, probably need money more than ever. So you would think a governing body would step in and try to help them somehow.

The interview also touched on the various controversies that have plagued Australian cricket in recent months, including Pat Cummins is falling out of favor with the Australian public of his climate activism, David Warners captaincy collapse and Justin Langers resigns from his role as head coach acrimoniously.

“I don’t think Cricket Australia handled the whole thing very well and they have to take some of the responsibility for that,” Ponting said of Langers’ departure. But I think deep down, and even some of the guys that I work with, a lot of them were pretty disappointed with the team and some of the events, some of the messages that came out.

However, Australia’s former captain and the country’s leading Test run-scorer pointed to the positive buzz around Test cricket. England’s resurgence under Brendon McCullumand the intensity of competition between several Test-playing nations.

There’s good and bad, but it just seems like what England are doing, what the Australians have been able to do, it’s been fun to entertain Test cricket, said Ponting. That’s why I think it’s healthy. I think if there were a lot of draws and a lot of dead games, then I would worry about that. But I don’t feel like it right now.

If you think about their team here last year, they had guys like that [Rory] Burns and [Haseeb] Skirts and [Dom] Sibley, it just made cricket look too hard. You could say they weren’t skilled enough to be long-term successful international players. Then what they went and did, [Ben] Duckett and [Zac] Crawley and [Harry] Brook and guys like that, they’re really talented.

Can they play like this against Australia? Will it hold up against really good opposition? Well, we’ll have to wait and see. But it’s something that excites me because there are so many unanswered questions.

You can read the entire interview in the latest issue Wisden Cricket Monthlywhich is now available for purchase.

Subscribe to Wisden Cricket Monthly (Print) here
Subscribe to Wisden Cricket Monthly (digital edition) here