On June 14 at Lord’s, the 2023-2025 World Test Championship cycle concluded with South Africa finally securing the elusive pot of gold after a 27-year-long wait.
The final between the Rainbow Nation and 2023 WTC winners Australia capped off a remarkable two-year cycle for the format.
At a time when the panache of the franchise scene has plunged the fandom into a perpetual T20-induced stupor, Test cricket proved once again that it still merits a place in a claustrophobic schedule.
However, while the most recent cycle rejuvenated Test cricket, it also raised significant doubts about the WTC in its current iteration.
Here, Mohan Harihar outlines three key things we learned from the 2023-2025 WTC cycle.
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A win for ‘the little guys’
When Kane Williamson’s New Zealand were crowned champions of the inaugural WTC in 2021, it justified why the championship was first conceptualised – to provide context and structure for all Test nations.
The Proteas’ win over the Australians mirrored this, serving again as loud confirmation that Test cricket is still held in reverence when a global game is nurtured beyond the ‘Big 3′ (India, Australia and England).
Although the Future Tours Programme (FTP) provided a lop-sided fixtures list for the Test nations, 2024 in particular proved to be the shot in the arm Test cricket needed.
We saw lower-ranked teams enduring against stronger nations and a number of away wins against the odds.
This included the West Indies’ triumph at The Gabba, Sri Lanka’s Test win at The Oval, New Zealand’s historic whitewash in India, Australia’s and England’s victories in New Zealand, Bangladesh’s series win in Pakistan and South Africa’s twin wins in Bangladesh.
This cycle reinforced the need for a more equitable playing field in terms of allocating fixtures.
Is it time to look beyond England as the venue for the WTC final?
All three WTC finals (2021, 2023 and 2025) have taken place in England.
The ECB are likely to continue as hosts until at least 2031, a decision which will be ratified at an ICC meeting in July, per Simon Burnton at the Guardian.
Speaking to Matt Roller at ESPNCricinfo, ECB CEO RIchard Gould explained: ‘We don’t think that we’ve got any absolute right to be the continual host of the WTC [final], but there are advantages to having it here.
“Irrespective of who gets into the final, we will sell it out. We’re probably the only member nation within the ICC that could deliver that.
‘We recognise that perhaps others would like to take it around the world at some point.
“But the worry is if you move it, end up with two neutral teams, and don’t get a crowd, the whole thing could devalue and deflate pretty quickly.’
England is a melting pot of cultures and cricket fans which is an attractive selling point for neutral fixtures.
But from a technical playing point of view, is there merit to hosting the final in different countries provided it remains neutral for the finalists?
Teams from SENA contesting a final in Asia (and vice versa) will have no choice but to resort to different strategic plays to win, truly testing their versatility as a team.
An Australia vs England final at the Wankhede Stadium, for example, would be intriguing to say the least.
Finally, much like traditional World Cups, shifting the venue of the final could go a long way to advertising and marketing Test cricket across the globe.
The WTC final should be a two-match series at the very least
Tournament finals are traditionally one-off shootouts. But is it time for Test cricket’s ultimate showdown to be tailored to better mesh with the format’s essence?
The Test game is a format where winning a series is the ultimate goal.
All of the format’s legacy sides are judged on this metric as much as they are on flair and playing ability. Therefore, the WTC final has felt off-kilter given this premise.
Part of Test cricket’s allure is its elongated nature and the cadence teams follow to learn, adapt and bounce back during the course of a series in a specified country.
It is the facet of the five-day game which sets it apart from its international white-ball counterparts and the franchise machine.
At Lord’s, South Africa demonstrated grit, adaptability and skill to rightfully earn their spot as champions.
But an additional game or two would have afforded Australia an opportunity to showcase why they have been so dominant in recent memory.
By the same token, South Africa would have been able to back up their excellence at Lord’s and display their mettle to close out a full and robust series.
In the WTC’s current structure, this dimension, which truly brings out the best team across a series, is lost.
Hosting Test cricket is a substantial blow to the pocket. And there are undoubtedly increased financial hurdles to clear for host nations outside of India, Australia and England.
But with the amount of money that exists in the game in 2025, and the original vision of the WTC to promote a more vibrant world Test game, a solution must lie somewhere.
By Mohan Harihar
READ MORE: World Beaters! South Africa crowned World Test Champions
