In spite of everything, final will feature the two best teams –
New Zealand and
India – and some of the modern game’s greats
The forecast is for rain. Of course the forecast is for rain. It’s the final of the World Test Championship on Friday: a concept first seriously mooted by Wisden a quarter of a century ago, first endorsed by the International
Cricket Council in 2010, first organised for 2013 and then cancelled, then organised for 2017 and then cancelled again, whose first edition then ran into a global pandemic that detonated the entire qualification process and forced the showpiece final to be moved to a business hotel just off the B3035.
So naturally, as India and New Zealand prepare to meet at the Ageas Bowl, it is entirely appropriate the Met Office should offer a yellow warning for the Southampton area, predicting thunderstorms and “a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded quickly”. In many ways, a washout in front of a sodden Covid-restricted crowd of 4,000 would be a fitting climax to the inaugural edition of the WTC: a competition that for all its best intentions and impressive logistical gymnastics has felt coldly cursed for pretty much its entire existence.