Simon Harmer raises concerns about unfair Test scheduling

South Africa, the defending World Test Championship winners, recently hammered Australia in a fiercely fought three-match Test series at home, continuing their excellent run in the format. They have, in fact, lost only one Test series since January 2024, which came against New Zealand, where they had sent a second-string side due to a clash with the SA20.

Despite their dominance on the field, South Africa have yet to attain the same standing in world cricket as the Big Three - Australia, England and India. While the latter three continue to play five-Test series against one another, other nations often have to make do with shorter contests. South Africa, for example, are playing only two series consisting of three Tests in the ongoing WTC cycle - against Australia and England, while four others also comprise two Tests.

Harmer, who was the star of the show for the Proteas on the final day of the Newlands Test with 6-17, expressed his frustration with the scheduling differences on the recent episode of the Scoop.

“It lights the fire even more,” said Harmer when asked about the scheduling imbalance. “It's no secret that playing against India is basically where a lot of the governing bodies sort of finance themselves for the four-year period of their budgets. And England and Australia get to play against them in five Test match series, plus the ODIs and the T20s that go with it. We get to play two Tests against them.”

South Africa last played a four-Test series in 2019-20 when England toured them. Since then, they have played 15 series of only two matches, and only four assignments with three matches.

“I do think that slowly but surely we are showing the world that we should be allowed to play more cricket. I can't remember personally the last time that South Africa had eight home Tests in a summer and ten Tests over a South African summer period. And like that shouldn't be sort of extraordinary, that should be the norm,” he added.

The off-spinner was particularly irked by the critics after their last WTC triumph, where people tried to downplay their achievement citing an easier path to the final.

“You know, like everybody had something to say about how the team got to the World Test Championship final last year, and how we didn't play against these people and we didn't play against that team. We're just gonna have to bang the door down and show the world that we are the best team, but you're only gonna do that by winning series and winning trophies.”

“And I hope that the next generation of South African cricketers benefit from what the team has achieved over the last 18 to 24 months. And it is a responsibility on this group to make sure that we understand what we are slowly achieving in world cricket,” he added.