Rabada to Test teams outside the Big Three: 'Play good cricket, give fans entertainment'

The onus is on Test players outside of the Big Three countries to play an attractive brand of cricket to keep the format alive, according to South African quick Kagiso Rabada, who is in his tenth year of international cricket. Rabada has played 62 Tests, fewer than his number of ODIs (101) and T20Is (65), but regards the longest format as the best and wants his peers to help keep it healthy.

"It's up to us as well to boost the game. You look at the big three, Australia, England, India and they just have the most money to be quite frank. However, if you want those nations playing against you, then you need to be playing good cricket. You need to be challenging for that ICC mace or World Test Championship (WTC)," Rabada said from Trinidad, where South Africa are preparing to play a two-Test series against West Indies. "That's one of the ways in which you have control to set an equilibrium amongst teams. That's one thing that the unions can control: to play good cricket."

Rabada, like all players of the modern era, has experienced the global transition to T20, and benefited from it. In the last seven months, he has played in four different T20 competitions - the SA20, IPL, T20 World Cup and MLC - but no Tests. This is a situation unique to countries who struggle with the costs of hosting Tests. South Africa and West Indies both fall into that category, with CSA opting for two-Test series for the entirety of the 2023-2025 WTC cycle and West Indies due to play the second-fewest number of Tests in the same period: 26 (Sri Lanka, with 25 Tests, have a leaner schedule).

With talk at the recent World Cricket Connect event, hosted by the MCC, of reducing the number of top-tier Test teams to six, South Africa and particularly West Indies, who finished eighth in the last two WTC cycles, have reason to be concerned about their long-format future. But Rabada hopes players can sway the minds of the decision-makers by putting in compelling performances.

"Cricket is about giving entertainment. Sport is about giving entertainment to the fans. And with cricket being the second-most popular sport in the world, after football, based on the numbers in the subcontinent, it's very certain that cricket is providing entertainment for the fans," Rabada said. "And for the fans to get good entertainment, the cricket has to be good. I just feel as if when good cricket is played, then the best teams want to play against those teams. It's up to us to play good Test cricket. And if you play good Test cricket, then you start to get a good following."

Rabada pointed to West Indies' Test win over Australia in Brisbane in January as the kind of thing that can ignite a fan base.

"We saw when West Indies went and beat Australia, that brought a spark back to West Indies Test cricket. And more of that just needs to happen. The celebrations after Shamar Joseph bowled the way that he did - people were crying, people were very emotional. A picture tells a story of a thousand words. So all you have to do is look at those scenes and it'll tell you."

South Africa last put in a showing of such significance when they beat India in the Boxing Day Test in December 2023, but they couldn't finish the job and ended up sharing that series 1-1. Their last great series win was at home against India in the 2021-22 season, when they chased record totals at the Wanderers and Newlands to come from behind and claim a 2-1 victory.

South Africa have not been a consistently competitive force in the longest format, especially against Big Three sides, since around 2017-18. The years 2017 and 2018 are the only two in Rabada's career when he has played 10 or more Tests. In three of the last four years, he has played five Tests or fewer.

Despite that, his returns remain among the best in the world. Rabada is ranked fourth on the ICC Test bowling charts and is within touching distance of becoming the sixth South African to take 300 wickets. He needs only nine more. If he gets there in the first Test against West Indies, he will do it as quickly as Allan Donald, and only one Test slower than Dale Steyn, which emphasises his place among the greats, even though he is trying not to think about it.

"It will be such a special landmark but I'm not focused on that. It will just be a byproduct," he said. "I'm just focused on making sure that I'm there for the team and that I find a way to put in a performance. Putting in a performance ultimately means that the team is moving in the right direction and that I'm doing my part."

That also includes playing the kind of cricket that fans will want to watch, starting with the West Indies tour. Though South Africa made an entertaining comeback to international cricket against West Indies in 1992, their meetings since then have been one-sided, and when played in the Caribbean, take place at awkward hours for their home support. West Indies have never won a Test series against South Africa, apart from the one-off game 32 years ago, and have not beaten them in a Test match since 2007. In the West Indies, they last beat South Africa in 2001. So it's no surprise to hear Rabada say, "We know that we can beat them. We do believe that we can beat them," but also that there's something bigger than just winning at stake.

It's also about the future of the game. "The Caribbean is my favourite place to tour. I love coming here. There's a lot of history and cricket and cricketing history here," he said. "It will be sad if there are only six (Test) teams and it would be sad to not see West Indies cricket in and amongst the top teams as they used to be because they used to dominate world cricket."