Testing time for cricket not all bad

There is a cynical view that the off-field shenanigans in the Australia-South Africa Test series are like including strippers in a church service: tacky and unseemly … but a good way to bring back the crowds.

Certainly, when the final Test begins at The Wanderers on Friday, the “Bullring” will be packed and hundreds of millions of cricket fans around the world will be glued to their TV sets. Not bad for a game which comedian Robin Williams once described as “baseball on Valium”.

While the controversies have sparked interest, the on-field performance has been overshadowed, which is a pity, because it has produced some sparkling cricket. It’s proved that Test cricket can be just as exciting – and more intellectually stimulating – than its more seemingly energetic cousins, ODIs and Twenty20.

The sledging and the cheating may have helped keep the flame of Test cricket burning … but at what greater cost?

Cricket, at the moment, looks like professional cycling in the Lance Armstrong era, where the mantra is becoming “win at any cost”.

“The Gentleman’s Game”, which now appears anything but, needs to get back to being that most noble of sports where fair play is not the main thing, it is the only thing …