Those who have blamed the Lord’s pitch for the helter-skelter World Test Championship final might have picked the wrong target. The Australia-South Africa Test match has been played by 22 cricketers re-acquainting themselves with red balls and the concept of a game going for five days.

It’s not their fault that they’re not ready: a lack of readiness has been built into its design, as if the powers of international cricket want to look like they’re saving the Test format while doing everything they can to undermine it. Imagine if a football World Cup final were played as a one-off, out-of-season friendly for the benefit of Jeff Bezos. Not even FIFA could screw up that badly.

None of South Africa’s players had taken part in a first-class game of cricket in the past five months. One, Lungi Ngidi, last bowled a red ball in a match in August 2024. (He looked a tad rusty.) Three of the Australians had played some county cricket in England last month, but for the rest, their last first-class cricket was three to six months ago.

Rusty? Just a bit. Australian viewers might be a bit rusty too. Those who wanted to watch the game had to pinch their noses, hold their breath and submerge themselves in the swamp that is Amazon. For the Test match not to be protected by anti-siphoning laws gives a pretty good idea of how Australian regulatory and broadcasting interests rate it.

For the rights to be sold to a company with a rap sheet including (but far from limited to) tax avoidance,........

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