SA expected to have majority of support in WTC final, but Smith not fussed

The last time the Australians played at Lord’s a room full of ginned up old fogeys — aka, members of the MCC — forgot they were upstanding gentlemen attached to one of England’s most exclusive clubs and turned into yobs.

Screaming “cheat, cheat, cheat” was the least of what was directed at Australia’s players after their wicketkeeper Alex Carey had quite correctly — and abiding with the rules — run out Jonny Bairstow, who’d wandered out of his crease. 

This historic venue turned into a zoo that Sunday, hoards of frothing ‘gentlemen’ in suits and ties revealed their true colours.

Naturally some racist stuff was directed at Usman Khawaja and later two MCC members were suspended and one expelled. Asked what his side could expect from the members for the World Test Championship final, Steve Smith, said: “I’m not sure, I’m actually not fussed either way.” 

The feeling is the Proteas will have the majority of support in the World Test Championship final that starts on Wednesday and not only because there are quite a few tour groups — including one led by Vernon Philander — booked to attend the match, but because the English will get behind them too. 

There’s an Ashes series later this year and any sign of fragility the Proteas can expose will be heartily welcomed by the English.

“We will probably be enjoying the majority of the support, I think the English will be supporting us as well,” Shukri Conrad remarked.

Even Stuart Broad, a scourge of Australian teams over the years, agreed to lend his expertise to the South Africans at training on Monday.

None of which bothers the Australians. They’ve been here before, won the ICC mace the last time it was up for grabs and won a great deal much besides. 

Smith, too, has copped his fair share of boos from English crowds for his involvement in the sandpaper scandal. But he averages 55.00 in this country and has made eight of his 36 Test hundreds in the UK, including two at Lord’s, one of which was a double hundred in 2019.

“Yeah, it's a nice place to bat,” he remarked, understatedly. “It takes a little bit of time getting used to the slope. At one end you feel like you're falling over a little bit. The other end you feel quite tall.

“So it takes a couple of deliveries just to get used to that from both ends. But you certainly get value for your shots, particularly hitting the ball down the hill. The ball seems to race away.

“So it can be a nice wicket to bat on, as we've seen over the years as well. But that can change obviously with overhead conditions, if there's a bit of cloud in the air and the ball starts swinging around, it can get tricky.”

Because it's England, the Ashes is never far away from the locals’ thoughts but Smith, in response to what Australia might take from this Test into that series at the end of the year Down Under, said it was important to focus on what awaits them.

“The Ashes is a big series, but you also can't look too far ahead. You've got to keep playing each game as it comes and every game is important with the Test Championship on the line. That's the reason it came in, to make every Test more relevant, I suppose.”

There’s no playing down it’s importance among the South Africans. “We still hold Test cricket very dearly, though our fixture list might not speak to that,” Conrad remarked.

“This is the biggest final, the biggest match our players have been involved in. We need to make sure Test cricket remains the pinnacle and the best players need to be out there. But every nation needs to be included when Test cricket is spoken about.”