South Africa Cricket

The South African cricket team is currently ranked number-one in the ICC Test rankings, fifth in the ODI rankings and third in the T20 rankings. In 2012, South Africa became the first nation ever to hold the number-one ranking in all three formats of the game. Nicknamed the Proteas, Graeme Smith currently acts as the Test captain, while AB de Villiers is the ODI captain and Faf du Plessis leads the Twenty20 side. The 1998 ICC Champions Trophy remains the only major tournament South Africa have won despite holding the record as having the best ODI winning record in the game. 

South African cricket paid the price for the country's government policy of apartheid, which had resulted in the white-only team only playing against so called "white nations" such as England, New Zealand and Australia. The ICC voted to suspend South Africa from international cricket indefinitely in 1970, forcing the likes of Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards and Mike Procter to play the majority of their careers away from the international stage. It would also see talented players such as Allan Lamb and Robin Smith switch to England in order to play international cricket. 

It wasn't until 1991 when thee ICC reinstated South Africa as a Test nation following the deconstruction of apartheid, and the team played its first sanctioned match since 1970 against India in Calcutta on 10 November 1991, in a game that was also South Africa's first ever ODI. South Africa's first test match after re-admission was against the West Indies in April 1992, South Africa losing by just 52 runs against a still powerful West Indian side. 

Since South Africa were reinstated they have failed to achieve the level of success they should have achieved with the talented players at their disposal. The strong Proteas side of the 1990s were labelled 'chokers' by many for their failure in major tournaments, with South Africa reaching three World Cup finals without yet winning the tournament despite having the likes of Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Gary Kirsten and Hansie Cronje at their disposal. 

The match-fixing scandal involving former captain Cronje rocked South African cricket at the end of the 90s, but since the turn of the millennium South African cricket has been back on the rise, with Graeme Smith leading the Proteas to the top of all three formats of the game and going some way to erasing the damage done by Cronje. 

The likes of Smith, Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel have taken South Africa to a different level over the past few years, putting this squad in a strong position to build one of cricket's strongest dynasties. 

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