While the World Test Championship (WTC) final is due to start at the Ageas Bowl on Friday, June 18, the last game of the WTC will actually begin a few hours later, thousands of miles away in St. Lucia, between West Indies and South Africa.
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The series between the two was originally due to be played in 2020, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Rescheduled for June 2021, the encounter is, by most accounts, still part of the first World Test Championship cycle, despite the second Test coinciding with the final.
There was initially some confusion over the status of the game. ESPNcricinfo and Wikipedia both list it as a WTC fixture, though the ICC’s fixture list, which can be fallible, suggests it is not part of the global red-ball tournament. However, confirmation came from Cricket West Indies, via their squad announcement, that the series is part of the first WTC cycle.
With both teams obviously out of final contention, it might be assumed that this matters little. However, with the ICC announcing the WTC prize money structure this morning, the second Test takes on a little extra context. West Indies and South Africa are jockeying for position in the lower half of the table, with Pakistan also in the fray. The team that ends up fifth in the table will end up with double the prize money of the sides that finish from sixth downwards, and while West Indies’ defeat in the opening Test means they can finish no higher than sixth, a victory for the Proteas in the second Test, confirming a 2-0 series whitewash, would see them move up to fifth at Pakistan’s expense, and pocket an extra US$100,000. A draw would see them finish above West Indies, but below Pakistan, and only pocket them US$100,000.
In other words, while the game might seem like a dead rubber at the end of a tournament that has already forgotten it’s going on, it’s actually one of the more lucrative matches cricket has seen.
